Never Fear (8) (Friday Barnes) Paperback – January 1, 2021

I bought this book for my granddaughter. She loves it.

I loved this book of Friday Barnes, but I'm extremely upset this this is the final book in the series. 😖 If you Enjoyed this book as much as I did, or more ( which I don't think is possible) then can you please ask R. A Spratt to write a new book Asap. If you are planning to write a letter to R. A Spratt Could please write this message in your letter. "All of the Friday Barnes fans would love it if you could write 1 or more new books in the impeccable Friday Barnes series and we would love it if we could also have two very special characters back in the series. Ian Wainscott, and the old headmaster. If you are planning to write the next book please consult Jasmine Luong @ elizabethluong1@gmail.com , thank you." And thank you to all these people reading this and writing messages to R. A. Spratt. 😊

My 10 year old daughter can't get enough of these books! The books are a little tough for her to read....so we read them out loud. Even my 12 year old son enjoys the books.

She was so excited! I got her the set to read after a surgery

Things are changing at Highcrest Academy. There’s a new Headmaster, which made no sense to me when I learned about them towards the end of the last book. Sure, the previous Headmaster is currently recovering from a medical emergency but I didn’t think there was any way they would voluntarily retire.It’s not that they love their job or having to deal with Friday, who’s fairly consistently sitting on the bench outside their office. It’s because their gambling addiction hasn’t left them with enough money to be able to retire. This apparent inconsistency is explained in this book.That wasn’t the only thing that was odd about the last book, or this one for that matter. I don’t remember Friday getting hit on the head once in either book. That’s so un-Friday-like.It’s not long into the new Headmaster’s reign before Friday is transferred from Year 8 to Year 12. This means she will be finishing high school in a matter of months, not years. Highcrest Academy is her home and Melanie, her best friend, is the closest thing she has to family (other than Uncle Bernie). She can’t imagine her life without either and is certain the new Headmaster is just trying to get rid of her. After all, it doesn’t seem as though Dr Belcredi is a fan of Friday.“‘It’s amazing how often you’re the one who find the problems that no-one else notices are there.’‘I’m just observant,’ said Friday.‘You’re a trouble-magnet,’ said Dr Belcredi.”There’s the mystery of the missing toilet paper, unexpected cake and the entire student body are sleeping in tents. The big mystery, even though it felt forgotten for part of the book, was the possibility of gold hidden somewhere at Highcrest Academy.“There chiselled into the sandstone, just visible under years of lichen and dirt were the words:LATET INTUS IN AURUM‘That’s Latin. It means “the gold lies within”,’ said Friday. ‘I always assumed it was a metaphor for a student’s potential, but maybe it literally means gold.’”A couple of minor inconsistencies didn’t make sense to me.Shortly before Friday pulled the fire alarm we were told it was an hour before dinner and as such classes had finished for the day. Two pages later we learn that no one was scared when they evacuated because it meant they were getting “an afternoon off class”.Friday reminds us she isn’t good at noticing changes to people’s physical appearance when Mirabella wails about the conspiracy to make her fat, yet in the last book Friday specifically mentioned another character losing 15 kilos.I was glad that Malcolm had a role to play in this book and the new Headmaster, who I hated at first sight because I didn’t want the old Headmaster to be gone, grew on me towards the end. I loved that Binky had so much page time; he’s always adorable.If my series binge had gone ahead as planned several years ago I would have been extremely disappointed with how this book ended. It seemed like it was the final book in the series when it was published and so much was left up in the air. Thankfully I have the ninth book on hand and I’ve already had a sneak peek at the end so I know there’s going to be a tenth.

There's a new principal, Dr Belcredi, and she doesn't seem to like Friday Barnes - not even one little bit - and getting rid of Friday seems to be at the top of her agenda for Hillcrest Academy. With the confusion of implosions galore - both actual and emotional, thefts of valuable school property, the whole school being forced to live in tents while an asbestos crisis in the school building is handled, and people still searching for the lost treasure of Hillcrest Academy it seems that Dr Belcredi might get her wish and have reason to expel Friday sooner rather than later. Will Friday solve all the mysteries - who is stealing from the Academy, is there a treasure and if so where is it, and why is the school building being burrowed under etc - before Dr Belcredi manages to ease her out the door or are these final mysteries too much for Friday Barnes?Another lovely story in the Friday Barnes series which neatly solves a lot of the open story questions that have been hanging over the series since book one.Sadly, this is the final book. While the final pages assure us that there is a new series coming with new characters (which is great) I really hope that this isn't going to be the last we see of Friday Barnes. She deserves more books and I think avid readers deserve more of her escapades as well. I hope that maybe one day R A Spratt will decide she misses Friday too and will resurrect the series for the rest of us to enjoy further Friday adventures. I wait in hope...Highly recommended.