Lily and Violet are twins-physically identical but quite opposite in character. Lily is brash, up-front and in your face. Lily Loudmouth, her dad calls her. Violet is timid and shy. She lives very much in Lily's shadow-a shrinking violet. Finding it difficult to make friends, Violet finds the perfect solution in Katie, her new pen pal. Soon the two are writing at a fast and furious pace and become very attached to each other. That is, until Katie suggests that they meet.

The fifth gloriously funny and poignant book in Jean Ure's series of 'secret' diary stories. Lily and Violet are twins — physically identical but quite opposite in character. Lily is brash, up-front and in your face. Lily Loudmouth, her dad calls her. Violet is timid and shy. She lives very much in Lily's shadow — a shrinking violet. Finding it difficult to make friends, Violet finds the perfect solution in Katie, her new pen pal. Soon the two are writing at a fast and furious pace and become very attached to each other. That is, until Katie suggests that they meet...

Review
Shrinking Violet Grown-ups love Bridget Jones' diary, but youngsters will adore Violet Alexander's. Liverpool Echo Excellent for any nine-up and will almost certainly lead to an addiction to Ure. Observer Becky Bananas 'The writing transcends any trace of heaviness.' Guardian Fruit and Nutcase 'Jean Ure never puts a foot wrong.' Daily Telegraph The Secret Life of Sally Tomato 'Rhymes, sauciness, letters, irony, comedy, comic characters... a proper little turn-on for boys. A must-buy book.' Books for Keeps

Jean Ure was born in Surrey and wrote her first novel when she was six years old. She spent her teenage years writing and had her first book published when she was sixteen. Jean lives in a three-hundred-year-old house in the centre of Croydon with her husband and their family of rescued dogs and cats.