About the book
Tess’s parents have dropped a bombshell. The family’s moving back to the place everyone wants to leave, the place Tess calls Toytown. She doesn’t want to go and not just because it’s small and nothing ever happens there – moving means leaving Chloe behind, her sister who died.
What Tess doesn’t expect is how much happens in Toytown, especially with a half-brother and half-sister moving in, the promise of chickens and a frenetic dog called Milo. And school isn’t any less busy. Tess accidentally gets caught up in the annual Shakespeare Festival – playing a tree in the Scottish play, and prompting for The Tempest, which is directed by a boy in a patchwork waistcoat who seems to think she knows what she’s doing. Happiness, she has begun to realise, has gradations, like steps, or rungs on a ladder, and she’s not at the bottom anymore. And then it’s Chloe’s birthday, and with the voices of Miranda and Prospero in her head, Tess leaves her new life behind and goes to find her sister.
Degrees of Happy is a story of friendship and family and the power of words to heal. Written by the author of the award-winning Iris and Me, it was a finalist for the Storylines Tessa Duder Award 2024.
‘A vivid, emotionally precise portrait of high-school life. It’s messy, funny, chaotic and full of heart.’ — Tania Roxborogh
‘Sad, funny and moving – I really loved this beautifully written story of Tess slowly emerging from the silence of grief through the power of friendships, a loving yet imperfect family, a persistent teacher, and Shakespeare.’ — Helen Wadsworth
