This Is My Family

Based on the 2013 UK Theatre Award for Best Musical, this hilarious musical comedy celebrates the lifelong adventure of family love.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 166 pages
Publication date: 08 November 2023
Publisher: Samuel French Ltd

Imagine you're a spirited 13-year-old and you've won – actually won – a magazine competition to describe your family. The prize is a dream holiday for the lot of you, anywhere in the world.

Except, Nicky's family isn't the blissfully happy bunch she's described. More like the contestants in a gladiatorial arena, in fact. Where on earth can she take them that might make her wishful thinking a reality?

Winner of the 2013 UK Theatre Award for Best Musical, this hilarious musical comedy, which moves seamlessly between speech and song, is a celebration of the lifelong adventure that is family love.

Nicky's family is a dysfunctional bunch, with her parents constantly bickering and her siblings fighting. She's always been the odd one out, feeling like she doesn't belong. But when she wins the competition, she decides to take her family on a dream holiday to Hawaii. She hopes that this will be a chance for them to bond and finally be a happy family.

However, things don't go as planned. Nicky's parents are too busy arguing to enjoy the holiday, and her siblings are too preoccupied with their own problems to pay attention to her. Nicky feels like she's failed again, and she's left feeling lonely and isolated. But then, something unexpected happens.

Nicky meets a young boy named Jake on the beach, and they quickly become friends. Jake is from a different family, but he's kind and friendly, and he sees something special in Nicky. He encourages her to be herself and to believe in herself, and Nicky starts to see the world in a new light.

Through Jake, Nicky learns that family isn't always about blood and genetics, but about love and acceptance. She realizes that her family isn't perfect, but that they love her unconditionally and that's all that matters. She also learns that sometimes, the best things in life come from unexpected places.

In the end, Nicky's dream holiday turns out to be more than she could have ever imagined. She learns valuable lessons about family and herself, and she comes home with a newfound sense of confidence and happiness. And she knows that no matter where life takes her, she'll always have her family to lean on.

ISBN-13: 9780573132544