Loz and Al — Julia Lawrinson

Laura - Loz - is twelve years old and she and her friends, Al, Emily, Luci, Nina and Shelley, are planning to be the next big pop sensation, tour the world and make heaps of money. Everything in life is great until, suddenly - almost overnight, it seems - Loz's world is turned upside down. First of all her very best friend from the age of eight, Alice, (Al) starts hating her, and won't even tell her why, and then her Mum, who has been acting really weird, decides to leave home. The only thing that keeps Loz from losing it completely is her school project about traveling around Australia. With the help of some friends that she didn't know she had, Loz finds solutions to her problems and discovers that things have a way of working out in the end. Loz and Al is a deftly crafted story that deals sensitively with the sometimes painful process of growing up.