A great book, I felt like I got to know Billy, understand him. The book left me wanting to know what happened to him next - how his life turned out in the end?

Straight away I have to say I absolutely loved this story. Any book (that isn’t of the romance genre) which involves you so much that you cry ………………. has to have something special about it! Having worked in the past on the streets as leader-in-charge for a youth work project and for the past ten years working in schools, I can tell you for certain that Billy’s story is the real deal – real life. The blurb gives you all the background you need and to which the story is built around. I found Billy’s story easy to read and easy to identify with – it is sensitively written. All the characters are well-rounded and have depth and you feel yourself supporting Billy – even when he’s lashing out in anger. It’s easy to feel the depth of his emotions – I just wanted to mother him! Some of the things that happen might make you feel uncomfortable but that will probably be your response to things you don’t want to think about! I really enjoyed ‘watching’ Billy change and grow. Billy is …………………. Well, just being Billy isn’t he?

This book is amazing, it pulls out all emotions you never knew you had. You feel for billy and the colonel, and i cried at least twice. i have also met phil earle, and it was amazing. I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Billy Finn has lived in a care home since he was seven years old. His Step-father used to beat him and his mum was always too drunk to look after him and his younger siblings. Billy has anger issues, hates the cares system, school ... pretty much everything really - with the exception of the twins, Lizzie and Louie, his younger siblings. They are the two people in the world Billy would do anything for. The only problem is the social workers want to take them away from him - to send them back to live with their mother now she's cleaned up her act. Billy isn't won't be going with them and makes every effort to try and keep the twins with him - including agreeing to actually go to school. This is made much easier by his new friend, Daisy, who like him is part of the care system. Being Billy is an emotional read that really gets you inside the head of a fifteen-year-old boy living in care and makes you really understand what he's going through. Yes, he's the kind of kid who's always in trouble, who lets his fists do the talking and has no real attachment to anyone other than his brother and sister but the reader gets a real insight into why he's like this.Essentially it's how he survives. It's the realism that really makes this book work. There's no soft sugar-coating to Billy's actions, thoughts and feelings. A debut book by a talented writer, I can't wait to read more from Phil Earle.

I wouldn’t have known anything about this book, let alone bought it if I hadn’t gone to watch Phil Earle talk about his Storey Street children’s book series at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival – and it’s five years old now so I’m not sure where it’s been hiding from me. I defy anyone to go and watch Phil Earle speak and not be tempted to buy his whole back catalogue. He was engaging, open, and infectiously enthusiastic. And good with the kids; a breath of fresh air that buoyed me up in a day full of talks and panels with authors that, quite honestly, weren’t always as exciting as you would hope. Anyway, I was drawn to Being Billy (and another of his books, Heroic – review to follow) when the mother of the pre-teen boy in the queue ahead of me was dissuaded from purchasing it for her precious little one due to the ‘older content’. I swear it was genuine interest that made me pick it up, though I can’t promise that there wasn’t an element of smug in the look that I gave said boy when returning to my seat. Billy is a social care ‘lifer’ and is angry about it. Seemingly abandoned by everyone he cares about, the only thing that keeps him in check is the love he has for his younger siblings taken into care with 8 years ago, but when their relationship with their mother begins to change and he discovers something upsetting about the mysterious home life of his only friend, Billy spirals out of control. And there’s nobody to help him…or is there? So, there is a moment in this book that genuinely made me cry like a baby. I’m not going to tell you why because I want it to reach in and grab you by the feels unprepared just like it did me when you read this book – and read this book you must. Billy, and his relationship with his care worker (little hint about the crying for you there, I’m not worries – it’ll still get you), just seem so real and genuine. Not surprising you may think after a short Google stalking session only to discover that Mr Earle has worked in a children’s care home and spent time as a drama therapist working with abused kids. Of course that must have helped him write about Billy, but experiencing something and writing about it in a convincing and moving way are not the same (as the high number of cringe worthy sex scenes out there proves); Billy is brilliantly written and the issues are delicately handled in a way that allows Phil’s straight talking attitude to shine through. I genuinely cannot recommend this book enough. For me, it was reminiscent of Melvin Burgess’ Junk and not just because of the similarly acidic neon green cover. Reading it, I was simultaneously immersed in, and educated about, a world of which I previously knew nothing. I was rooting for Billy in a way that I don’t for many people that I actually know and I was sad – and a little emotionally drained – when saying goodbye to him. I wonder what he’s up to now? Read this book NOW and make everyone you know read it so that you can talk about it with them.