Bug loves her big drafty house in Vermont where the doors creak shut on their own, a window might close or a touch of something brushes across her in the hallway. Her mum says it’s just the house’s way of winding down and going to sleep, but Bug knows better. She has lived in this house since she was born, with her mum and her uncle Roderick. But now Roderick is gone, and the house seems more haunted than ever.

Bug’s best friend Moira doesn’t like staying over because of the strange things she’s seen or heard, but Bug can convince her every now and then. It’s their last summer before middle school and Moira thinks they should begin to get ready. Bug doesn’t know what she means at first until Moira brings up topics like clothes and make up and boys.

Not interested in any of these, Bug just goes with it when Moira wants to give her a makeover. But the result is even more scarier than her usual reflection. The girl staring out from the mirror feels like a completely different person, a stranger even. She can’t describe it, but she is feeling less and less herself lately, especially since Uncle Roderick passed away. It’s too hard to explain to Moira when Bug can’t even explain it to herself, so she pretends to be interested in what girls are supposed to like.

When Bug wakes up one morning with her bedroom ransacked she knows something spectral has happened. She tidies up before her mum sees the mess. More and more things happen, and she has strange dreams. Keeping these events from both Moira and her mum, Bug explores old files and papers she’s found in the attic, and in Uncle Roderick’s room too. She then researches the world of ghosts, Ouija boards and hauntings, at the public library. It confirms her suspicions. Uncle Roderick is trying to tell her something.

The middle-school years are turbulent at the best of times and a plethora of books have been written about it. This is a good thing as each middle-schooler / Intermediate (NZ) student has a different experience due to different lives and encounters beforehand.

In Too Bright To See, 11 yr old Bug is content to stay just the way she is. She likes her shorts and t-shirts, reading books and riding her bike, but her friend urges her gently to do what other girls do, to enable them to fit in at middle-school. This age brings huge changes such as puberty, making new friends, having more responsibility with more homework and joining out of school activities.

This is all so daunting for Bug, because she feels like she has lost herself along the way, or actually, not quite found who she truly is in the first place. The loss of an important guiding light in her family makes this even more confusing. Her struggle pulled at my heartstrings as she is pulled in different directions trying to find where or how she ‘fits’.

When the true Bug is finally revealed in the mirror one morning, the transformation is wonderous, both for character and any reader following Bug’s journey in this award winning novel.

Too Bright to See is true treasure and possibly life changing for those who are struggling with finding their true selves.

Intuitive, authentic and beautiful.

Author – Kyle Lukoff

Age – 10+

(2022, Penguin, Transgender, LGBTQ+, Blended Family, Family, Friendship, Growing up, Love, Ghost, Peer Pressure, School, Secret, Drag Queen, Gay, Make up, Grief, Ouija Board, Poltergeist, New friend, Acceptance, Change, Discovery, Identity)