Ellie Pillai is Brown

Product Information

We understand that she is desperate to be her authentic self, but how can she do this without upsetting her family and friends? Now Mrs Aachara’s leading the class and it seems she’s spotted something in Ellie’s ‘performance’ that even she doesn’t know is present. A fresh, funny, feel-good story and a powerful exploration of identity, friendship and family with music threaded all the way through. And sadly only like one of those topics are given the time to develop, instead the rest feel rushed or just there to be a cliche. With classics such as Ted Hughes's The Iron Man and award-winners including Emma Carroll's Letters from the Lighthouse, Faber Children's Books brings you the best in picture books, young reads and classics.

I also liked the supporting cast of characters that Pillainayagam has created in the book as they really enhanced the story. Ellie finds expressing her true emotions very hard, but by using music she can express her feelings more openly. I know when I was growing up there weren’t many YA books that represented POC and different religious backgrounds, so I think the fact that YA fiction is more diverse these days is amazing, and so beneficial to so many children/teens/young adults. I know it’s a YA book but I feel like some of the slang used was a bit unrealistic and a bit of a stretch. Suddenly, her misfit style, her skin colour, her songwriting and all that getting lost in the music in her head seem to be okay too.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Der Schreibstil erzählt aus Ellies Sicht und das sehr leicht und flüssig, zudem sind die Kapitel meist angenehm kurz. I loved Ellie's family, including her matriarchal grandma who was so much like mine, and seeing Sri Lankan Christian rep was wonderful.

The friendships were also very cute and very high school like, which made me feel nostalgic at times. I found the whole idea of using QR codes throughout the book to connect to Ellie's playlist absolutely genius! Bronnie is so lovely with the boys and we also felt that having a man enthusing about the books set a great example.

Ellie Pillai is Brown is a warm hearted read that really perfectly captures what it feels like to be a teenager: it’s a real whirlwind of emotions and complexity. Ross Welford introduces Time Travelling with a Tortoise, the sequel to Time Travelling with a Hamster, and a whole new time travel adventure! The message was really gracefully delivered and the music really made it a unique experience for me. I don't think I read much of fiction with POC character so was quite delighted to receive this new debut with such main character. At this point I do feel like I've pretty much aged out of YA, especially contemporary, but I do like to go back to it every now and again to catch up and see what I've been missing.