Lucy Bee and the Secret Gene by Anne Ingram

Lucy Bee and the Secret gene by Anne Ingram. Pub. White Gull Press, 2014.

If you have ever looked at your mother and father and said to yourself “I look nothing like them” then you have something in common with Lucy Bee.

Lucy has thick frizzy hair and it bothers her. On the way home from school one day an older boy calls her a fuzzy haired freak and throws her school bag on the road. It bothers her big time. Where did she get the fuzzy hair from? She decides she has been adopted and her parents are not really hers. She puts it to her mother who says don’t be silly of course you are our daughter and shows photographs of herself pregnant and Lucy as a baby

Lucy is not convinced and speculates perhaps she was swapped at birth. I wonder how many children have had the same fears Lucy has? I would say heaps.

Then a school science project gives Lucy and her friend Megan to prove one way or the other what the truth is. Lucy decides to get in touch with all her relatives on both sides of the family, do a family tree and ask them all what traits they all have that are similar to hers. Will she get to the bottom of it all?

Excellent, simple story that is easy to read. Lucy has great parents and the issue of childhood friends gets an airing. Plus somebody has burnt the Junior school down.

Very appealing read-a-loud book for middle school and intermediate.