The setup - that after the death of Iris, Bluebell’s twin sister, the family has come apart, parents burying themselves in work, children running riot - does what a lot of good children’s fiction aims to do: sidelines the parents from the start. There are a clutch of siblings, a bossy grandmother and a male au pair named Zoran, a Bosnian refugee, graduate student and happy addition to the nanny pantheon. Bluebell’s father teaches medieval history at a distant university and writes “books that nobody ever read except his students because he made them.” Her mother works for a big cosmetics company when she talks with her children, it is usually via Skype.

It is set in London, among a family of means (they live in a house on “Chatsworth Square,” which the 12-year-old narrator says is rundown but “apparently quite valuable”). There is a pleasing mixture of the modern and the old-fashioned in “After Iris,” Natasha Farrant’s first middle-grade novel and her first book to be published in the United States. “And stop looking at everyone through that stupid camera.” “Stop creeping up on people!” exclaims her elder sister, Flora. Ages 10 up.Bluebell Gadsby is the kind of heroine who brings to mind Cassandra Mortmain in “I Capture the Castle” or Harriet the Spy: awkward, lonely and always off to one side, scribbling, or - in the latest iteration of the teenage journal - filming. Blue's struggles are handled with honesty, and she makes a rewarding journey from observing her life to living it again and accepting what she has lost. debut, balances Blue's growth with wry humor and light moments (as when the rats make a chaotic visit to Blue's classroom in remote-control race cars). Then 16-year-old Joss moves in next door, saving Blue's social life and becoming her first crush, which is complicated when he begins dating Flora. Each chapter begins with a brief transcript of video diaries filmed by quiet, lonely Blue ('My plan is to record my life through words and images').

Between Blue's older sister Flora's rebelliousness, her two younger siblings' antics, and the family's pet rats, which live in the garden of their London home, Zoran has his hands full.

Blue's father is working on the other side of the country, and their mother is traveling overseas, which leaves new au pair Zoran in charge. Twelve-year-old Bluebell Gadsby's family has been collapsing ever since Blue's twin sister, Iris, died three years ago.

After iris by natasha farrant