Goggle eyes

Author: Anne Fine

Published: July 31, 2001

Pages: ‎144

Anyone who did their junior school during the 2000’s has probably read Goggle Eyes in their English class. The book was interactive as it was written in a screen play script. Students would take turns in reading out different characters. What was fun about it was the fact that the characters became a part of their lives and in my experience students in my school used to call those who put on specs or had big Goggle eyes.  Written by Anne Fine, the book tells a story of an incomplete family.  The main characters of the story are Kitty Killin, Jude who is Kitty’s mother and her classmate Helen. This book is mainly about the story of Jude and her boyfriends. At the beginning of the story, Kitty’s classmates, Helen had some problems so that Kitty needed to talk to her, as the story develops, Kitty told Helen her family story. So the type of this book is warm-hearted fiction. The book opens with a dramatic scene. A girl, Helen, charges into a classroom tears streaming down her face. She is uncharacteristically rude to her teacher and then emotionally runs out of her classroom. The main protagonist Kitty is sent after her and not knowing why she is chosen but she reluctant follows the other girl to the locker room. It is from there that the scene is set for Kitty to tell her story to her upset classmate. It transpires that the other girl Helen has a divorced mother with a new man in her life that she hates. Kitty then realises why she was chosen and then proceeds to tell her story of “Goggle Eyes”. The novel is a funny subtle exploration of the pain of adjusting to divorce and then having the new balance of mother and children upset with a new and possibly permanent man in the family. It is about the gradual maturity of the main character learning to live with and reluctantly like a man who is the exact opposite of her, temperamentally, politically and in many other ways and realizing that such a situation can work. It is a charming, sometimes hilarious story with well-developed characters and some political content as well. It can be enjoyed by adults as well as teenagers.