Changes in the composition of the family or friendship group are among the most challenging situations to confront children, so it is no surprise that many books for the upper-primary-aged reader address this theme.

For Elizabeth Honey’s engaging Henni Octon (The Ballad of Cauldron Bay, Allen & Unwin, $15.95 pb, 289 pp), writing her third novel about the Stella Street gang on her very own computer, the fly in the holiday ointment is Tara. Like Henni, Tara has recently turned thirteen, but is going-on-twenty in her preoccupation with fashion, figure, and boys. Even before the advent of Tara, Henni is conscious of change: the holiday at remote and magical Cauldron Bay is not a replica of the blissful Fiddle-back experience. Zev has brought a new friend into the group, and of the neighbourhood adults only Sue and Tibor are available, so more responsibility for the younger children devolves upon Henni. When Tara arrives for a break from her messily divorcing parents and starts romancing a larrikin surfie, Henni is faced with difficult and disturbing decisions. Although Henni reluctantly picks up hints of an imaginative creativity in Tara that nicely complements her own, it takes a near disaster before the pair are able to stand in one another’s shoes and fully appreciate their contrasting qualities and experiences.