Review – The It Girl by Katy Birchall


untitledEverybody wants to be a famous It Girl. Don’t they?

Anna Huntley’s aims in life:

1) Must keep my two lovely new (and only) school friends by not doing anything in usual manner of socially inept dork and outcast.

2) Train Dog (my labrador) to high-five. This is probably the most ambitious life goal on this list.

3) Do not set the school’s Deputy Queen Bee mean girl’s hair on fire (again).

4) Work out whether 2) and 3) constitute being socially inept or outcastish.

5) Go to Africa and give out rice.

6) To hide in a cupboard FOR LIFE with Dog now Dad is engaged to one of the most famous actresses EVER, the paparazzi want to splash my face all over the papers and everyone in school (and The World) is soon to discover the level of my social ineptitude.

7) Is rice a bit done now? Maybe I can give out chocolate in Africa too. I do like chocolate. Must work out how to do it from the cupboard…


Publisher – Egmont

Date Published – 7th May 2015

Pages – 352 pages

Format – Paperback

Category – UK YA, Contemporary

Source –

I was sent a proof copy of this book by the publishers, Egmont for review.  This does not affect my review or my opinions in any way and am delighted to write an honest review.  Thank you to Alice and Egmont for sending me this fab book!


** Please note Tales Of Yesterday Reviews are written as spoiler free as possible**


Okay so I thought I would try something a little different for this review *gulps*

Whilst reading and loving The It Girl there were several exchanges between Anna and her best friend Jess via email with often hilarious conversations.

You can read an extract from The It Girl here which features examples of the emails between Anna and Jess.

So I thought I would email my lovely friend Sofia from www.thereadingfangirl.wordpress.com and tell her all about this book and have a little catch up!

Here’s what happened….


From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: Fab Book Alert!

Hi Sofia!

So Kevin and Corey are out at cubs tonight so I have a peaceful few hours at home to myself so I thought I would pop you an email to see how you have been?  I’ve not seen you for ages!  Hope your doing okay and your exams have gone okay too!

What have you been reading lately, except for revision books of course.

Did I tell you about the book I’ve been reading! It’s called The It Girl by a fab debut author Katy Birchall!  The book starts with the main character Anna setting a girls hair on fire with a Bunsen burner!?  I laughed that loud whilst reading it in the garden that my cats looked at me with embarrassment …. oh and also disgust at the sound I made! It seemed to scare all of the pigeons away that they were licking their lips at and eyeing up to pounce on so I am now officially the pigeons saviour!  I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not?

Anyway…went slightly a bit of topic there!  You really must pick up a copy of The It Girl!  It has lots of very funny moments!  I’m sure you will love it!  It’s about friendship too and the friendship between Anna and Jess is THE BEST!

I liked the message of the book as well….friendship and family and the fact that you don’t need to have everything to have everything if that makes any sense at all!

And before you ask…..no it wasn’t my mobile phone that started playing Jar Of Hearts on my iPod in the middle of an author event! *looks guilty*  The thing wouldn’t turn off!  I almost chucked it in my glass of orange juice to drown the embarrassment away!

Speak soon

Love, me xxx

***************************************************

From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: Pigeon Saviour!

Hey Michelle!

 So sorry for the late reply! As soon as my exams finished, I just read a lot! I’ve been well, no problems on my end! How about you? It has been way too long.

 That book sounds hilarious! Bunsen burners are a deadly weapon!  I’ve had a few near misses at school myself!

You saved all of the pigeons! Don’t you think that’s a weird word? Pigeons. Pig-eons. Sorry that’s just my brain going at it being weird again.

 Oh god that was you? I thought it was my mum so I was hiding in embarrassment. I’m glad it was you and not my mum! That would have been embarrassing for me. Not that it was embarassing for you…. well it kinda was..I’m so glad I wasn’t sitting next to you!

 Hopefully we can speak soon,

Tell me more about this book!

Love from the slightly weird teenager you somehow put up with  xx

***********************************************

From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: Friend?

And there was me thinking you were my friend!  lol

It really was kind of embarrassing ….literally everyone was looking…I’m sure I went the colour of a beetroot!

Talking about beetroots!  Remind me never to sit in the sun whilst reading again!  Chelley + sun = lobster….I took a selfie but I’m too ashamed to show it *presses delete quickly*

So anyway….more about The It Girl!  It was so so funny!   It’s about a girl called Anna who loves nothing more than spending weekends reading comics and watching csi and probably eating milk bottle sweets (yummy).  She is a bit of a geek I guess and fancies the popular guy in school!  One day her Dad brings his new girlfriend to their house and it turns out she’s a famous Oscar winning actress and her daughter is a famous It Girl!  When Anna’s Dad announces they are getting engaged this catapults Anna into the spotlight and she has to learn to become an It Girl herself!  And it turns out Anna and being an It Girl don’t mix!

I totally loved Anna!  I feel like you actually see her grow by the time the book is finished…and you also see her hanging upside down at one embarrassing point in the book in front of EVERYONE!

It’s told in the form of a mixture of emails, voicemails (often to Anna’s Dad when shes watched a horror film and is in the house alone!) and the story from Anna’s point of view.  This actually makes the book flow really well!

Awwwww and guess what!   Anna has a dog who is called Dog….he’s scared of salad spoons and loves bacon and is just adorable!  I loved the relationship between Anna and Dog!  At one point she holds Dog up like that scene in the Lion King….do you know which bit I mean!  Poor Dog!  Anna also wants to train Dog to give a hi five!  🙂

I laughed out loud so much at this book!  I feel I have many Anna moments in my life and often consider if Katie Birchall based her on my life lol *checks for Katy Birchall security cameras in my house!*

There’s also an hilarious scene between Anna and her Dad when his new girlfriend is coming around to the house for the first time…it involves Anna making a jump for the stairs and her Dad grabbing her by the legs to keep her down stairs!  It’s so funny!

Anna is also always hiding in a cupboard with Dog!

Love,me xxx

**********************************************

From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: Marvel!

Hi Michelle!

Reading in the sun never works out in anyone’s favour! I’ve heard a horror story about someone who fell asleep whilst revising in the sun and when she woke up, she could barely move! Though, I would pay a hefty amount of money to see that selfie.

 That book sounds absolutely amazing. Anna seems like the kind of girl that I want to be! Is there a love story? Romance always makes a book even better!

You’ve now convinced me to read it but should I really be buying more books when I brought ten books a week ago? *hides in shame*

 I know the Lion King scene you mean!  How funny!  Dogs are adorable and that dog sounds hilarious! I must admit I’m more of a cat person myself. We have 4 cats; Thor, Loki, Odin and Black Widow(we’re Marvel fans in this household!).

 I love it when you read a book and you can relate to the main character! If you have Anna moments in your life, then I definitely must do!

 Love,

Sofia xx

**********************************************

From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: 10 BOOKS!

Hi Sofia!

Really?  Wow that must have been some boring revision session to fall asleep for that long!  Are you trying to confess this was you?  If so yep!  I would love to see that selfie!  lol

10 books!  Was there any books left in the book shop?!  lol  What did you buy?

Oh yay!  So happy!  You will love The It Girl so much!  It does have romance in it too!  There’s a lovely boy called Connor!  Anna and Connor bond in detention over Anna’s list of things to achieve in her life and superheros!  I think you would like Connor a lot considering the names of your cats!  That’s SO cool!  Do you have any pictures?

Also the author Katy Birchall is a HUGE Marvel fan!  I think you and Katy would get on really well!  I met her at an event at Electric Monkey earlier in the year and she was very lovely!  I feel she is also a bit like Anna herself….she accidently confessed that a spider bit her eye!

What are some of your #AnnaMoments?

Love, me xxx

**********************************************

From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: Only 10 Books

Hey Michelle,

I know right! I can’t imagine how bored she must have been! She must have been revising Biology because that makes me tired.

And no!  It wasn’t me!  Cheeky!

 I raided the Rick Riordan section of the bookshop and bought all 5 books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series plus the Heroes of Olympus series. I must have caused them to run out of his books… *hides in shame*

 Ahh romance. I crave romance and that romance in The It Girl sounds so darn adorable!

My brother was behind naming all the cats and he hasn’t even seen Thor! I used to have a load of pictures of them but then my phone crashed and all of my photos were deleted. It was such an emotional time! All of my photos from my events disappeared including the ones from UKYA Extravaganza! Which reminds me, we have no photos of us and that is a complete and utter shame!

I’m so clumsy and silly so my whole life is probably an #Annamoment.

Love from,

Sofia 😛

*******************************************

From: [email protected]

To:  [email protected]

Subject: Lost photos!

Oh wow!  There’s no shame in raiding the Rick Riordan section of the book shop!  You go girl!

Oh No!   Poor photos!  I hope you manage to get them back!  And we don’t have a photo together?!  How did this happen…or not happen as the case may be!  This must be rectified next time we meet up!

So if you do grab a copy of The It Girl let me know what you think!  There’s going to be a book 2!  I cannot wait!

Speak soon

*runs away from pigeons calling me Mommy!*

Love, me xx

**************************************************


I award this book 5 out of 5 Tales Of Yesterday Books!

12You can buy The It Girl here

Or why not add it to Goodreads here

You can find out more about The It Girl, watch a video and read a fab extract here !

Also check out this fab guest post by Katy Birchall about 10 things she has learnt since becoming an author – here !

Or find out more about The It Girl 3 in this exclusive interview with, It Girl, Anna Huntley here

or

A fab guest post on How To Avoid Sports Day here

Find out what we got up to at the Electric Monkey Blogger Day here

Check out this fab video of Katy talking about The It Girl!

A huge thank you to Sofia also for participating in this different kind of review! xx


About Katy Birchall

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Katy Birchall is the debut author of The It Girl series. She also works at Country Life magazine as their Deputy Features Editor. Katy won the 24/7 Theatre Festival Award in 2011 for Most Promising New Comedy Writer with her very serious play about a ninja monkey at a dinner party. Her four pet Labradors are the loves of her life, she is mildly obsessed with Jane Austen and one day she hopes to wake up as an elf in The Lord of the Rings. She grew up in Essex and currently lives in Brixton.

You can follow Katy Birchall on twitter using – @KatyBirchall


A huge thank you to Sofia also for participating in this different kind of review! xx

Go give Sofia a follow on twitter – @SofiaSTRF and check out her fab blog to – www.thereadingfangirl.wordpress.com

Are you looking forward to reading The It Girl?  Have you enjoyed hearing a little more about it?  Have you ever found your self in some embarrassing moments?  I would love to hear from you!  Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this post or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy !

 Happy laughing at Anna!

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I am often known to be a bit clumsy and a little loopy! Book loving (obsessed), theatre loving, slasher film loving csi geek! Winner of UKYABA Champion Newcomer 2015 and nominated for Champion of Social Media 2016 and Blogger Of The Year 2016! © 2014 - 2021 Michelle Toy All Rights Reserved

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