It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Pretty Funny

Pretty Funny

Summary

"This book is filled with loveable characters, witty dialogue and proper LOLS which made recording the audiobook hard - because I kept giggling!" Sharon Rooney

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'?!

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.
    Askew & Holts

About the author

Rebecca Elliott

When Rebecca was six, she precociously pronounced that she wanted to be 'an artist and a writer'. After a 'brief' detour from this career plan involving wanting to be Stephen Fry, a degree in philosophy and a dull office job, she fulfilled her dream in 2001 when she became a full time children's book illustrator. Ultimately proving, if nothing else, that once her mind is made up she really can't be bothered to change it.
Since then she has become an award-winning and bestselling author of over 30 books for children, including her ongoing series Owl Diaries which has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.
If she's not story-making Rebecca can be found reading, podcasting with her comedian best friend, drumming or singing in her band, making something (normally a mess), or just hanging out in sunny Suffolk with her gorgeous children, permanently frantic dog Frida and sarcastic cat Bernard.
Learn More

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more