How difficult it is to be twelve!  Not a child, not an adult, not even a teenager – where do you fit? 

Brandie is twelve and suddenly everything seems to be changing weirdly.  When her mother is not yelling at her, she has ‘special talks’ over books with pictures of naked men.  Her dad will not body wrestle any more.  Her teenage brother locks himself in his room. Even her own body starts having weird changes.

But when her mother gives her a box of letters to her imaginary daughter that she wrote when she was twelve, Brandie decides the world, and growing up, is seriously weird. 

This story could easily be played for laughs, a sort of ‘Malcolm in the Middle Australia’.  Or it could end up a sugary, sentimental ‘happy-ever-after’ sermon on family communication.  Mary Tucker does neither, going instead for a much more difficult, and much more realistic, study of a confused, uncertain girl full of anger at what she is losing and fear of what lies ahead.

There is still humour, especially Brandie’s first Nearly-Kiss, or her descriptions of the clothes her Mum makes her.  But gradually, through Brandie’s voice, we can see her realization that there is something really important about the letters.  But it is something she has to discover for herself and then fit into her twelve year old world.

 Being Brandie is a very emotional book.  Brandie’s emotions fly all over the place; she rages, sulks, delights and ponders, trying to make sense of all the changes.  It also draws emotions from the reader as we see what Brandie cannot, or will not.

 It was first published in 1995 and it has certainly lost none of its freshness or relevance in this re-issue.  Any twelve year olds, or nearly-twelves, and definitely parents of the same, should read it and listen to its messages very, very thoughtfully. 

Review by David Beagley

© 2003 David Beagley