Science-geek Meg gets in from school to discover a note from her mum asking her to pick up her baby sister. All evening, Meg battles with bottles and nappies as she waits for her mum to come home. But then Mum phones from the airport: she is boarding a plane to Thailand to follow up yet another of her Big Important Causes and expects Meg to look after Elsa for the next ten days. Meg is horrified by her mum’s latest stunt: she may understand how the universe was formed, but Elsa is a complete mystery to her.

Mum’s disappearance could not have come at a worse time: Meg is desperate to win a competition to get the chance to visit NASA headquarters and must study if she’s going to beat her close rival Ed. Ed is irritatingly confident; the fact that he’s so good looking (and knows it) makes him even more unbearable. Meg can’t let him win.

As the exam draws closer, Meg’s double life as student and ‘mum’ starts to unravel; if she’s going to stop her life from imploding she needs a miracle of cosmic proportions. When it finally comes, all Meg’s theories about love, life and the universe are turned upside down.

 

Jenny McLachlan burst into the publishing scene with her middle grade seriesLadybirds (Flirty Dancing, Love Bomb, Sunkissed, Star Struck). STARGAZING FOR BEGINNERS features all the warmth, wit and romance of her middle grade novels, and a lot more. This is the best kind of real-life fiction – with big themes and irresistible characters, it goes straight to your heart.