Mickey Opie is almost thirteen and going crazy. Life hasn’t been the same since her beloved grandmother died and her best friend moved away. Her parents fight, her teacher’s a control freak, her school’s very own Mafia, the Greasy Hand, keep stealing her lunch and she’s cursed with hair that looks as if mice have nested in it. But no one at home is interested in hearing Mickey whinge, so she begins to write letters to the living and the dead - the Minister of Education, Bill Gates, J.R.R. Tolkien, Napoleon, Freddo the frog (she’s a chocoholic) . . . and most of all to her late grandmother. Mickey does have one thing going for her - her great imagination. Mickey writes to George Lucas as well, sending him instalments of her wild sci-fi fantasy about her alter ego, Space Chick Mick, where she really lets her hair uncurl.
Mickey’s Little Book of Letters is a portrait of the artist as a young girl becoming aware of her talents - and having a lot of fun doing so.
Lothian, 2004
