Werezi Books

Reissue of this ‘perfectly crafted novel, funny, compassionate, rich in characters’ (Daily Telegraph). Frankie's carefully controlled world unravels as he is forced to face his one burning unanswered question.

*A 2025 READ FOR EMPATHY BOOK*

Winner, Book of the Year in both Young Adult and General Fiction categories in the author’s native New Zealand. A warm, surprising, witty and intelligent novel you will fall in love with.

Frankie Parsons is twelve going on old man, an apparently sensible, talented boy with a drumbeat of worrying questions steadily gaining volume in his head:

Are the smoke alarm batteries flat?
Does the cat, and therefore the rest of the family, have worms?
Will bird flu strike and ruin life as we know it?
Is the Kidney-shaped spot on his chest actually a galloping cancer?

Only Ma takes seriously his catalogue of persistent queries. But it is Ma who is the cause of the most worrying question of all, the one that Frankie can never bring himself to ask. Then the new girl arrives at school and has questions of her own: relentless, unavoidable questions. So begins the unraveling of Frankie Parsons''s carefully controlled world.

A perfectly crafted novel, funny, compassionate, rich in characters. Hot damn (it also has great swear words), it’s good. – The Daily Telegraph

First published in the UK in 2010, this is a book whose preoccupations resonate even louder over a decade later.

Gorgeously written, this bittersweet chronicle of family complexities is wise but never pat—a masterful meditation on anxiety and courage that will be savored by thoughtful readers. (starred review)

Exquisitely written and beautifully paced, it is at moments very, very funny, at others heartbreaking as it traces Frankie''s journey towards silencing his ''rodent voice'' of worry.

Included in Booklist of Books to support Mental Health Awareness

… an achingly poignant, wryly comic story of early adolescence that invites comparisons to works by authors as varied as Lynne Rae Perkins, Nick Hornby and J. D. Salinger… Readers from early teens to adults will be drawn to this beautifully nuanced, unsentimental view of family life, friendship, the heroic requirements of growing up and the rewards of speaking the unspeakable out loud.

… a highly original, moving and entrancing book with an entertaining surface and a deep consideration of serious themes from the point of view of a 12-year-old. I don’t know if you are really allowed, or able, to say this about many books, but I think this one is perfect.

A perfectly crafted novel, funny, compassionate, rich in characters. Hot damn (it also has great swear words), it’s good.

A wonderfully life-affirming coming of age novel… This sweet novel deserves comparison with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – not least because it can be enjoyed by children 10+, and adults too.

A highly original, poignant and funny story that should appeal to adults as well as teens.

A powerful depiction of a boy struggling to engage with the world despite his mother’s difficulties in so doing. Not since Jacqueline Wilson’s The Illustrated Mum has this been achieved with such sensitivity and wit.

Get 10pm Question by at the best price and quality guaranteed only at Werezi Africa's largest book ecommerce store. The book was published by Old Barn Books and it has pages.