Book Review: The 'In' Crowd (Life with Stef #1) by Susette Williams

The ‘In’ Crowd is the first book in the ‘Life with Stef’ series written by Susette Williams. The book is written for pre-teens but it can be read by all because of the author’s easy-to-understand language. Like Chalet School series, this too is girlish in tone and nature.

The story revolves around a few girls who go in the same school. Two major themes of the book are forgiveness and societal prejudice which exists everywhere, even in their school. The main protagonist of the book is twelve-year old Stephanie. She is obsessed about shopping school dress. Having pestering her mother for several days, they finally go for shopping to an expensive store only to find clothes not fitting in their budget. There her classmate, Heather, is also shopping. Stephanie’s mother puts off her wish for that expensive shirt on the face of Heather. Heather lives in a posh area and is better off. She walks with pride. The awkwardness shown by her mother embarrasses Stephanie before her school friend.

In the school, Heather and two more friends Jamie and Rachael snub Stephanie for her low-class shirt. Their behavior hurts Stephanie and two more friends of her – Robin and Darla.

A few weeks later, it is seen that Heather’s best friends Jamie and Rachael are ignoring her. As it opens out that the expensive clothes that Heather had bought from that store are being returned because her father was jobless then and she purchased those clothes on credit card. Well as his father is till jobless, their financial condition dips down and possibly her family might shift to Stephanie’s area – which is considered not so good by Jamie and Rachael’s way of thinking. Money is a big factor in identifying friends.

Rest of the story is about how Stephanie and Heather develop a bond of friendship and how other people react to that. Though Heather has had hurt Stephanie earlier but still she forgives her. Later on when Heather’s financial conditions improve, her previous friends come in contact once again. She too forgives them for their ill behavior.

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