Synopsis of Step by Wicked Step by Anne Fine

It is a wild and stormy night when five British school children from Mordanger School arrive ahead of their classmates for a week-long field trip at "haunted" Old Harwick Hall. With the aid of flashes of lightning, the two girls Claudia and Pixie and three boys, Robbo, Ralph and Colin find a long-abandoned secret room containing a mysterious journal. On the cover, it reads, ‘ Richard Clayton Harwick – My Story. Read and Weep’. From the journal, the children uncover the story of a boy who runs away from the sinister influence of a loveless stepfather. Richard Clayton Harwick's long-hidden journal provides an inner tale that triggers off, one by one, each of the stories of the listening children, all of whom also have "steps," or step-parents, to share their own sagas. And what engrossing, heart-rending stories they are: of hurting but still humorous children picking their way through a minefield of embittered or uncommunicative or just plain immature parents, insecure or reluctant step parents and resentful step siblings. However, the lack of a principal plot is of no consequence as the novel main purpose is to serve as a forum for the various stories. "Step by Wicked Step" proves that all pain eventually heals and that we have the power to change things for the better.

NEW KBSM Literature Titles for Form 1-5

Lower Secondary: Form 1 to Form 3

Poems

1. I Wonder – Jeannie Kirby
2. The River – Valerie Bloom
3. Mr. Nobody – Unknown author
4. Heir Conditioning – M SHANmughalingam
5. A Fighter’s Lines – Marzuki Ali
6. Leisure – William Henry Davies

Short Stories

1. Flipping Fantastic – Jane Langford
2. One Is One and All Alone – Nicholas Fisk

Drama

* Rumplelstiltskin – Angela Lanyon

Upper Secondary: Form 4 to Form 5

Poems

1. In the Midst of Hardship – Latiff Mohidin
2. He Had Such Quiet Eyes – Bibsy Soenharjo
3. Nature – H.D. Carberry
4. Are You Still Playing Your Flute – Zurinah Hassan

Short Stories

1. QWERTYUIOP – Vivien Alcock
2. The Fruitcake Special – Frank Berman

Drama

* Gulp and Gasp – John Townsend

Form 5

Novel

Step by Wicked Step by Anne Fine