Review
Annie has only recently become blind, after a traffic accident that has also left her with a leg injury. From being one of the most popular girls at St Lucy’s, she’s become a target of bullies who used to be her friends. So her parents move her to the local public school, where she’s buddied with Maeve, also in Grade 5. Maeve’s been blind her whole life, but doesn’t let that stop her from doing anything and everything she wants.
Maeve is annoyed. Why do people think that just because she and Annie are both blind, they should be friends? She’s determined not to, and Annie’s not too keen either. But as they’re thrown together, in school, at parties and at camp, they start to realise that perhaps they do have some things in common after all.
*
I really enjoyed this book, which is much more fun and less worthy than it might at first appear. It reminded me a bit of one of my favourite books, Robin Klein’s Hating Alison Ashley. Maeve is really loud, bossy, funny and confident, like Erica Yurken, and Annie is more subdued and comes from a more privileged background, like Alison Ashley. There’s lots of fun primary school scenes that will bring back memories for slightly older readers (and me!), and a fun proto-romantic Anne Shirley/Gilbert Blythe energy going on between Maeve and her sparring partner Louis .
It’s a great novel about friendship and all the ways it can go wrong (bullying, little jealousies) but also how it can go right (including people, honest talks, it’s okay to have more than one best friend, loyalty & fun). The reader also learns a lot along the way about being blind, using assistive technology and experiencing unconscious discrimination – in a totally natural and non-preachy way. The narration alternates between Maeve’s first person diary entries and Annie’s third person subjective perspective.
I gobbled this up. Fun & uplifting – great for tween readers, 10-12+. 224 pp.
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Accident leading to sudden disability; bullying; anxious & over-cautious parents; friendship jealousies; healthy models of friendship; mild middle grade examples of discrimination (e.g. not allowed to play laser tag at party; asked a question about being blind in school captain interview); what it’s like to have a visual impairment.
*
Muscat, O. (2026). Annie and Maeve are definitely not friends. Fremantle Press.
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