The compelling tale of a boy with feelings so big he doesn’t know how to express them. A story of friendship, family and self-discovery, perfect for readers aged 9+, and beautifully illustrated in black and white.
Kai can’t stop pulling his hair out. It’s so patchy and scabbed his mam has to shave it off. His sister, Jen, has been sent away and Kai knows it’s all his fault. And he thinks Jen hates him for it.
His secret burns, but he tells no one, so he just keeps pulling at the tufts on his head.
But when Kai sits in the branches of an old sycamore tree, on a patch of overgrown scrubland near his home, he feels free to be whoever he wants to be – free to be someone who doesn’t keep painful secrets. And when a girl called Sky starts climbing his tree, a friendship blossoms that helps Kai begin to heal.
Up here
it’s like
I’m part of something else
the wind
the leaves
the air
free to be
whoever I want to be.