I loved watching her develop and learn to work with others, and form strong friendships I got a real sense of her joy in finding her people. She dreams big and she is motivated by good intentions, but sometimes she is just bossy.

She struggles with people who don’t share her outlook and vision. It’s not always easy for her to work with others. Effie soon finds herself support and some unlikely friends.

Effie is a firm believer in equality, rights and on everyone’s voice being heard and she sees the student government as a way to achieve this. She is new to her school, she doesn’t know anyone, and doesn’t have any friends, but she decides to run for student council president anyway, after a confrontation with the current president in the cafeteria rubs her up the wrong way. She is a great character in a lot of ways, but I found her utterly exhausting to read, which shows how well her voice is written. She talks in big, long sentences, not pausing often to take a breath. She is a raging extrovert: she has a lot to say and she isn’t at all shy about saying it, or about standing up for herself and her beliefs in a very public way. “I want to run for student council so that I can make a difference, and when we had our meeting today and everyone got all enthusiastic and we were laughing and sharing ideas it started to feel like something better than just me by myself like I was a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, fitting in perfectly, making something bigger.”Ĭlick here for book description on Goodreads.Įffie Kostas is my absolute opposite in almost every way.

Vote for Effie by Laura Wood