When Maria's father turns up at school and whisks her and her little brother Charlie back to Spain, she has no idea that they are being illegally snatched away from their mother and their comfortable life in Edinburgh. But what at first seems like an adventure soon becomes a painful ordeal as they find themselves torn between two battling parents.

Maria is a perfect blend of "wise-beyond-her-years" and "confused-little-girl", and Joan Lingard has drawn her so carefully that it is almost possible to reach out and touch the joy, jealousy and absolute despair she feels as she takes control of the situation and forces her parents to stop behaving like children.

A Secret Place is sometimes funny but more often sad, skilfully painting a shame-faced picture of how people who should know better--the grown-ups--can hurt those closest to them without any real understanding of the depth of the scars that are left behind.