Geena, Amber and Jazz are the Bindi Babes. These girls have been through some tough times but they have managed to get their perfect world totally sorted. The one fashion accessory they don’t need however has just arrived - the interfering auntie. Bring on the collective brain power of the Bindi Babes! Nothing in life, not even a formidable Auntie-ji, can stop these sisters ... can it?

Geena, Amber and Jazz are the coolest and most successful girls in the school, they are smart and clever and loved by the teachers, they have great friends and their dad gives them almost everything they ever ask for but people still feel sorry for them. Why? Well their mum died and since them everyone has gone out of their way to be supportive and helpful. But they are managing just fine, or so they think, only all of a sudden their perfect lives are turned upside down by the arrival of their interfering Auntie and her ideas about how they ought to live. Bring on the brain power of the sisters, a way of getting rid of Auntie is required and what better way than getting her married off to a suitably single and good looking teacher at school, but how will they go about achieving their aim?

The plans of the girls and the outcomes of their attempts make this a hilarious must read girlie book. I don’t often like to classify books in this way but this is very definitely one for the girls, with its references to fashion, shopping, cooking and its general outlook on life, as seen through the eyes of pre-teenage sisters it is definitely a girlie read. It will appeal to young girls because of its humour and some of the issues that it addresses, for underneath all the light-hearted fun Narinder Dhami does consider the impact of grief, the effect of having a one parent family and the way in which school or even the latest fashion accessory can become an escape from the reality of a life that is missing something.

This is the first in a series of books about Geena, Amber and Jazz, which provides an alternative from the usual girlie diet of Jacqueline Wilson and Jean Ure. It may also give girls from an ethnic background something that they feel able to relate to.

 Bindi Babes is a heart warming and very funny book, a great read.

2008-06-07