Beauty and the Bin Reviewed by Lhotse, Age 10

From the start I knew I would love this book as I love pampering myself with beauty products, plus my Mum calls me her mini eco-warrior!

I was hoping to get some eco beauty ideas, but I did not like the sound of using old lentils so I don’t think I will be getting all my beauty ingredients from the bin like Laurie!

Laurie is the main character and her family the Larksies were really funny even if they did embarrass her. The Larksies: hippies, food waste activists and March 4 Climate protestors – they were so loveable saving the planet and Laurie’s mum’s t-shirt ‘I’m Freegan Awesome!’ was hilariously funny! They were embarrassing to Laurie as they were different, they weren’t an ordinary family and believed in the 3 C’s that they stuck on the fridge: Connection, Compassion and Contribution rather than Cash, Chocolate and Conventional.

Laurie is my favourite character, but sometimes I think she tries too hard to be liked by the popular girls like Charley Keating-Sloss; who is all about the latest trends and the best trainers! Laurie has to realise if she wanted to be liked by the trendy girls and win the school competition, paired with Charley or be proud of her family and their activist ways, even if they were embarrassing – which would she choose?

Laurie has to decide if her dreams of creating beauty products from waste would be successful against the glamorous world of Instagram filters and expensive things. I know which one I would choose, but it takes time for Laurie to understand which is the most important.

The story is packed with funny incidents, especially when Laurie’s Skin Whisperer product ends up on the faces of the popular girls like lumps of cornflour mixed with greasy ketchup and a meringue pie launches at Charley’s face! I also loved the tweets and messages displayed in boxes throughout the book giving me a sense of what was trending and developing the changes in the story.

I definitely would recommend this book. It’s about friendship, family and saving the planet one step at a time, what Beauty in the Bin stands for. There are some fun beauty recipes too at the end of the book which I am going to try, like the Oaty Banana Face Mask and Laurie’s top tips to use food waste – would you try it too even from the bin?