New Middle Grade Novel – Pinkie’s Turnabout – Tackles Big Themes with Honesty and Grace
A Great-grandmother’s dementia and the school bully force an 11-year-old to reckon with empathy, forgiveness, and owning your mistakes
Released February 2026, Fitzroy Books
Eleven-year-old Pinkie Starlight is having a not-great summer. Her best friend is off at camp, and Pinkie is home helping care for her great-grandmother, GG, whose dementia means some days are sharp and funny and others are confusing, repetitive, and heartbreaking. GG sometimes forgets how to work the remote — and sometimes forgets who, exactly, Pinkie is.
But that’s only the beginning. In the new middle grade novel Pinkie’s Turnabout (Fitzroy, February 2026) by Sue Lloyd-Davies—touted by Publishers Weekly as “a brutally tender debut” in a starred review—a snarky stray cat named Jack slips uninvited into their lives and into the house.
Jack seems to bring out the best in GG, and it doesn’t take long for Pinkie to realize he’s no ordinary cat. Jack has mysterious memories tied to GG’s past, a few surprising abilities, and secrets that force Pinkie to confront long-buried truths about her family. If she can raise the money to adopt him, maybe she can keep both Jack and the fragile sense of balance he brings from slipping away.
But Pinkie’s plans unravel when Leo Lynch — the bully she hoped to leave behind at school — reappears where she least expects him. As Pinkie struggles with fear, resentment, and the temptation to judge before understanding, she begins to see how cruelty can be passed down and how being hurt can lead to hurting others.
Heartfelt, funny, and emotionally honest, Pinkie’s Turnabout is a middle-grade novel that tackles big themes with honesty and grace: what it means to love someone with dementia, understanding how cruelty gets passed along, and learning that real courage often begins with owning your mistakes.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sue Lloyd-Davies lives and writes in an old cottage in quirky Gulfport, Florida, where fuzzy cat, Arlo, loafs beside her keyboard and occasionally types an extra space or two into her stories. Caring for her mother, whose life — filled with friends, quilting and church — drifted into dementia, inspired her novel about Pinkie.
When she’s not writing, Sue can be found under the oaks handing out hazelnuts to rescue squirrel Owen or careening around the community center in a line dance. Visit her at Suelloyddavies.com
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“Drawing on personal experience, Lloyd-Davies confronts the hardships of caring for a loved one with dementia in this brutally tender debut. It’s a surprise-packed narrative that counterbalances nuanced examinations of complicated relationships and hard-earned life lessons against Jack’s delightfully snarky quips.” Ages 9–12.
—Publishers Weekly – STARRED Review
