Set in Australia, this gentle and beautifully written short novel will lift spirits in all sorts of ways. Griffin Silk is the sixth child in a family of girls, and he is in many ways 'an uncommon boy'. Quiet and reserved and rather precise in his ways, he is sensitive and has a secret that he has been unable to share with anyone. The whole Silk family is unusual. Living on an isolated farm, they are very close, and until recently, Mum has home-schooled all the family. Now Griffin must go to the local school, and because he is different, he suffers. Mum has gone away, and it isn't at all clear why or even if she will come back. Until Layla comes along, Griffin is isolated. Layla, a princess in Griffin's mind because she wears a daisy chain crown, is lively and fun and very different to Griffin, and they are soon fast friends. It is Layla to whom Griffin confides his secret - that his baby sister, whom he calls Tishkin in his mind - is dead and that his mum is in a 'sort of' hospital' because of her sadness at what we realise has been a cot death. When Griffin is able to share his grief and his guilt at feelings of jealousy to the baby because he has always been the special one heretofore, he and Layla are able to write to mum in hospital and invite her to a Naming Day for the baby. This is a Silk family custom, which happens a year after each baby's birth, at which time a lovely memory book is given to each child with their name carved on the front. In it are placed special things about that child - pictures and mementos. No one has thought to do this for the baby, and it is Griffin and Layla who see the importance of the baby continuing to be a member of the family. Mum is able to come home, and it is Griffin who names the baby officially Tishkin Silk. It is hard to express the beauty of this story in mere words. Ms Millard has done it already. There are other stories about the Silk family, none of which I have seen, but given this one, I can be quite sure they are all worth reading.