Pretty Funny

By: Rebecca Elliott

Narrated by: Sharon Rooney

Brought to you by Penguin.

Does anyone ever really want to 'fall' in love? Knowing me I'll just trip over it and graze my knee on the gravel of humiliation.

Haylah Swinton is fairly confident she's brilliant at being a girl. She's an ace best friend, a loving daughter, and an INCREDIBLY patient sister to her four-year-old total nutter of a brother, Noah. But she has a secret. She wants to be a stand-up comedian, but she's pretty sure girls like her - big girls, girls who don't get all the boys, girls who a lot of people don't see - don't belong on stage.

That hasn't stopped her dreaming though, and when the seemingly perfect opportunity to write routines for older, cooler, impossibly funny Leo arises... well, what's a girl to do? But is Leo quite an interested in helping Haylah as he says he is? Will Haylah ever find the courage to step into the spotlight herself? And when oh when will people stop telling her she's 'funny for a girl'?!

© Rebecca Elliot 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critic reviews

In Haylah Swinton, Rebecca Elliott has created a funny, vulnerable, relatable teenager . . . This book is jam-packed with heart and humour, meaning you'll fly through the pages to see what happens to Haylah. Featuring perfect female friendships and jam-packed with laugh-out-loud moments, this is a brilliant debut.

Elliott writes teenagers well, refraining from trying to use any slang . . . and just focusing on the issues that seem to come up for all teenagers, no matter what new tech is added to their life. It's also so refreshing to read about a young woman with ambition and passion that is not, say, a vampire/werewolf love interest . . . [Haylah] is a realistic character I believe plenty of teenagers would identify with . . . I wish this book had been written when I was a teenager!