My Name is Jodie Jones by Emma Shevah

All Dr Kumar wants Jodie Jones to do is choose her favourite word, or perhaps her top five, but there are too many great words out there.

She just can’t decide. Jodie Jones collects sentences. She exists in the spaces torn between words, where meaning is twisted and spun to reveal endless explanations of the life that both traps and bewilders her. The only thing she is sure of is that she will only answer to her full name, Jodie Jones. Not Jodie, and certainly not Jones. She is Jodie Jones.

There is a large blue suitcase downstairs in her father’s study, secretive phone messages, and a cardboard folder on his desk. He says it is for insurance papers, but he answered a little fast…perhaps he is covertly an agent for MI5, or is living a second life, full of romance and adventure. Maybe if he disappears he will leave her his secret collection of rubber ducks. The stories she invents in her mind protect her from the truth, but there is only so much truth that fantasy can hide. The world is far more full of darkness and intrigue than one mystery suitcase can ever explain, and if she doesn’t start figuring things out soon, she will be in far more trouble than just failing out of school.

But where can one lost girl find the help she needs when no one can hear the words she paints her world with. The words she wraps around herself so tightly that even she can’t feel the love she is missing. All she needs to do is choose her favourite word, but there are too many to choose. Perhaps just start with five. There is only one place to begin to find those words. She will need to go back. Back to where she stood five years ago, on the bridge. The place where all of her best words ran away.

Emma Shevah’s young adult debut features protagonist Jodie Jones as she escorts us through the maze of emotions that build and collide when recovering from trauma.

A London native, Shevah was awarded an MA in Creative and Professional Writing, and has written several books for middle grade and younger readers. She is Head of Literacy, an English teacher, and a learning support teacher working with a range of neurodiverse students.

Jodie Jones is a soul-shocking, heartbreaking glimpse into the divide of a family as they are forced to reckon with the gruelling truth that accompanies trauma, and the realisation that not all trauma comes from the action but our reaction to it.