Anne Droyd and Century Lodge

Gezz and her best friends Malcolm and Luke are having fun on the housing estate where they live when the arrival of a stranger interrupts their everyday lives and changes the world as they know it forever.

Created by a professor of robotics, Anne Droyd is left in the care of these three children, who take her to school with them and teach her how to be 'a human'.

This Asperger adventure explores the human condition and the need to integrate into a society that demands conformity.

The author's pun on 'android' introduces the theme of alienation that runs throughout, a tool used to provide comfort to individuals who feel like 'aliens', excluded in a social environment.

Readers will be captivated by the heroic characters and the colourful plot, and engaged by Hadcroft's imaginative presentation of real-life issues such as smoking, bullying and peer acceptance.