It quickly emerges that ‘interesting thoughts’ are not smiled upon in Grace’s church. She writes a loving but potentially blasphemous Family Bible, and in reading from ‘The Book of Mum’ at a church barbecue, ‘Chapter four, verse one … and she did like what she saw, and lo … the bloke’s name was Dad and a kind heart was within him and upon his driveway was a Toyota Hilux’, she provokes the ire of the church elders. The angriest and most important elder is Grandpop, her mother’s father, who is willing to take drastic action against so-called ‘sinners’.

Grace is a lovable character, a forthright girl who is loyal to her family and God. The novel is not so much anti-religion as anti-zealotry, and while the characters tend rather too neatly to be either rational and loving or dogmatic and cruel, this is not a serious flaw in a book aimed at younger readers. Grace is a compelling novel, another strong work from an author who made his name with comedies but now prefers more serious terrain.

The joy of Grace – much like Once (2005) and Then (2008), with their Holocaust backdrops – is that Morris Gleitzman has not lost his eye for comedy. There are laughs amongst the tribulation and the chaos, or at the very least, pained smiles. From saddling up a cat with a pencil case to employing a tow truck for some family salvage work, Grace is innocent and resourceful, adventurous and brave. This a book that will appeal to a broad congregation of readers.