'This isn't my home. Haven't had a proper home since ...This is just somewhere I'll be resting my bones for a week and maybe a bit. This time next year you'll forget who I am. I haven't got a diddly where I'll be by then. But I'm used to it'

Naomi has bounced around the care system for far too long. When she's placed with the Goldings, an emergency foster home, her expectations are already on the floor. But sometimes connections find you where you least expect them.

Home Girl is fast-paced and funny, tender, tragic and full of courage - just like Naomi. It is award-winning author Alex Wheatle's most moving and personal novel to date.

'Studded with Wheatle's characteristic slang, Naomi's story is both heartbreaking and hilarious, offering no easy happy endings, but a flickering sense of hope.' Guardian

Alex Wheatle is the real deal; he writes with heart and authenticity, books that make you laugh and worry and cry and hold your breath. It's a pity there's only one of him * Kit de Waal *
Wheatle's empathy, authentic characters and rich dialogue illuminate * Observer *
I love Alex and all he stands for in the world of literature * Kerry Hudson *
Studded with Wheatle's characteristic slang, Naomi's story is both heartbreaking and hilarious, offering no easy happy endings, but a flickering sense of hope. * the Guardian *

Alex Wheatle (3 January 1963 - 16 March 2025) was an author of several acclaimed novels, many of them inspired by experiences from his childhood. He was born in Brixton to Jamaican parents, and spent most of his childhood in a Surrey children's home. Following a short stint in prison following the Brixton uprising of 1981, he wrote poems and lyrics and became known as the Brixtonbard. Alex was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal and the YA Book Prize. He won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008.