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A Storm of Strawberries

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A Storm of Strawberries by Jo Cotterill

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By Jo Cotterill

avg rating

23 reviews

Darby loves summer on her family’s strawberry farm – but is the weather about to turn?

A UK nomination for IBBY’s List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2019

Darby is twelve and has Down’s syndrome. Her favourite things are music, chocolate, and her big sister Kaydee. It’s nearly time for the annual chocolate hunt, the highlight of Darby’s year, but Kaydee has brought a friend home for the weekend. Suddenly both the chocolate hunt and her favourite person are in danger of slipping away… and to make things worse, the family’s strawberry farm is hit by a tornado.

When the storm clears, what will be left? And can Darby mend what’s been broken when nobody will listen to her?

A warm, thoughtful and empathetic novel from acclaimed author Jo Cotterill.

Reviews

30 Jul 2024

One of my favourites

01 Sep 2023

I loved it. It told you about how Darby thought and felt. I would recommend it to people who like strawberries and comedy.

26 Jul 2023

I really loved this book because it’s an extremely heartwarming story about a girl with Down’s syndrome called Darby, who is afraid about losing her favourite person- her big sister Kaydee. Although Kaydee has shown more love to someone else, Darby realised that nothing can replace sister love ❤️.

19 Jul 2022

I really enjoyed reading this book. I like the way that we hear Darby's inner dialogue especially how she shares her feelings and reactions to different situations. I would definitely recommend it.

05 Sep 2021

I didn’t find this book very interesting. The story wasn’t exciting.

16 Aug 2021

I read this in one sitting - a beautifully written book about love, acceptance and family.

This made me feel happy inside - with such a strong bond between sisters and the realisation that you should be who you are and stand up for it.

Would recommend for age 11+

05 Aug 2021

This book was fiction I thought it was okay because at the beginning not much happened so I got a bit bored. I picked up the book again later and discovered that it got a lot better I ended up quite liking the book

02 Aug 2021

I love it. very emotion like all of Jo Cotterill's books.

21 Aug 2020

Super book!

15 Aug 2020

I really enjoyed this book. It had a good story line. I would recommend this book.

29 Jul 2020

My favourite character is Darby. I like Darby because she is quite like me. I love chocolate, and so does she. I'd also like to live on a strawberry farm. She lives on a strawberry farm.

I think I would recommend it.

17 Aug 2019

A Storm of Strawberries is a good book. It's about a girl named Darby who is 12 years old and has a brother and a sister. The main thing is she has Down's Syndrome. Darby's sister had a friend coming round for the weekend, although it was very blustery which made it not so good and one of the greenhouses on their farm smashed because of a storm. I won't tell you anything else because it will spoil the story for you. My favourite character has to be Pike the cat because I really like cats and kittens! I would recommend this book for over 10's because actually some of it is quite dramatic.

05 Aug 2019

I love Darby and how enthusiastic she was even though she has Down’s syndrome,I would recommend for 7+

03 Jul 2018

It was a nice book

23 Sep 2017

She used lots of descriptive words in her writing so that means that it made it more interesting to read. Definitely recommend this to all the young readers out there!!

04 Sep 2017

This is a brilliant, heart-warming story about the joy of friends and siblings, and standing up against the haters who don't like those who are different. I would recommend this book to girls 9 and over.

03 Sep 2017

I think you should read this book if you have a sibling or friend that has Down's Syndrome, or you have sisters or you just want to read this book!

Darby is 12 years old and has a big sister called Kaydee who is kind and gentle to her. But Darby dislikes Kaydee's best friend, Lissa, and Lissa is staying for the WHOLE weekend. Lissa and Kaydee won't play with her, Olly is to grumpy and mum and dad are stressing about tornadoes wrecking the strawberry plants! Can Darby learn to accept Lissa and Kaydee's doing upstairs or will she be in a storm of friendship herself? Read this book and find out!

22 Aug 2017

This is an incredible, heart-warming book about being different and standing up to people who don't think that's okay. I would recommend this book to girls over 9 years old.

11 Aug 2017

I really like this book because the main character has down's syndrome and lives on a strawberry farm. During her sister's sleepover , the tornadoes knock over one of her family's greenhouses

11 Aug 2017

I think it's really fun and it can change the world in one day. Darby is really funny even though she has Down syndrome.

07 Aug 2017

for children in year 6 and over

05 Aug 2017

it was amazing I loved it from the beginning to end.

04 Aug 2017

This book was amazing from beginnong till end. I loved every part of it and it made me feel lovely inside. Keep up the good work!!

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