Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

At the age of 13, Jane discovers that her seaman father has remarried and that she has a half brother and sister somewhere. She longs to meet them but her stepmother doesn't want her children to know about Jane. The author also wrote Peppermint Pig, The Runaway Summer and Squib.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Even though her friend Plato calls them both ``outside children'' (children on the ``outside'' of a family, looking in), 13-year-old Jane has been quite happy living with her two eccentric aunts, and seeing her father when his ship is in port. But one day she notices a picture of a young family in his cabin, and discovers that she has a half-brother and half-sister. Outraged that this secret has been kept from her, she and Plato embark upon a spy mission to locate and meet Jane's mystery family. Their efforts throw the delicate balance of her parent-guardian world into a turmoil; Jane comes to realize that her family's problems are not her fault, and emerges with a renewed sense of self-worth. Imbued with simple yet powerful emotions, Jane's coming-of-age in a broken family is thoroughly believable and cheerfully honest. Her journey of discovery and forgiveness covers some rough ground, but the story's spirited style never flags, and Jane's concerns are handled with empathy, heart and humor. Ages 9-14. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

Gr 6-9-- Her mother dead and her father ``away at sea most of the time,'' 13-year-old Jane has been adopted and raised by a pair of loving, eccentric aunts, secure in the knowledge that they are all the family she wants and needs--until, on a rare visit to her father's ship, she discovers a picture of two younger children among the familiar family photographs on his desk. Thus she first learns of Annabel and George, her father's children by his second wife. More bewildered than embittered by her discovery, Jane imagines herself an ``outside child,'' her nose pressed against the window looking in at the cozy family to which by rights she should belong. With her best friend, Plato Jones, as a willing accomplice (and clearly against the wishes of all the adults involved), she sets out to find Annabel and George, with no fixed plan and near tragic results. Jane's is a tale of innocence and experience, one that comes full circle in a way that should be--but is not quite--satisfying. She begins content with her unconventional family, certain that, for her, it is the best and only possibility. Once this certainty is shattered, she struggles to complete the family circle as she imagines it, only to find the reality unequal to the dream. In the end, she embraces the family (and friend) she's always loved, her love strengthened by the knowledge and acceptance of other realities. While Plato is a fully realized secondary character, the adult characters are another story. As vividly drawn as they all are, it is never quite credible that any of them would participate in such a deception or fail to set things right when the truth is finally revealed. Where Paula Fox's portrait of a difficult character makes Village By the Sea (Orchard, 1988) work, The Outside Child founders on extraordinary circumstances never quite made real. Still, if less than successful as a whole, this is fully engaging from page to page. Bawden's prose is arresting, creating a rich tableaux of crystalline moments and remarkable (if not quite believable) characters. And that's more than enough to propel readers from beginning to bittersweet end. --Marcia Hupp, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

A 13-year-old girl searches for the truth behind her father's secret second family in Bawden's well-crafted novel.

Horn Book Review

Fiction: I Driven by a desperate need to make sense of an irrational family situation, Jane tries to piece together shreds of memory from the past. Superb characterizations, the interplay of human relationships, and powerful emotions that lie beneath the surface of everyday life are presented wholly from the girl's ingenuous perspective. Review, p. Horn Rating: Superior, well above average. Reviewed by: elh (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Nina Bawden was born in Ilford, Essex, England on January 19, 1925. She received a B.A. in 1946 and a M.A. in 1951 from Somerville College, Oxford. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 40 books for both children and adults. Her first adult novel was published in 1953. Her books for adults include Circles of Deceit, The Ruffian on the Stair, and Dear Austen. Her first children's book The Secret Passage was published in 1963. Her children's books include Kept in the Dark, Humbug, The Birds on the Trees, Carrie's War, The Outside Child, Granny the Pag, and Off the Road.

She received numerous awards for her work including the 1976 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for The Peppermint Pig and the 1977 Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year Award for Afternoon of a Good Woman. She was made a CBE in 1995 and received the ST Dupont Golden Pen Award for a lifetime's contribution to literature in 2004. She died on August 22, 2012 at the age of 87.

(Bowker Author Biography)