When their parents fall in love, Tom and Zofia’s lives collide, with Tom and his mum moving into Zofia’s home. If you haven’t heard of the 34-year-old charity worker Katya Balen, you have some catching-up to do. A review by Emily Bearn in The Telegraph of The Light in Everything states, "One of the challenges in children’s fiction is making difficult subjects palatable, without rendering them bland.

This story reminds you of how difficult it is to be a human sometimes but also how if you let somebody in, your heart can soar. I began to do origami during lockdown and I loved the idea of taking a simple flat square and making something entirely new – a bird, a house, a star.A brave heart-dive into the deep emotions of Tom and Zofia, it’s beautifully told with care and tenderness. The author captured their individual voices so viscerally that I felt it in my heart all that they couldn't express, because of their own inherent fears of what the other would think of them.

Tom is the polar opposite after a life with a commanding, impatient, controlling and abusive father, who is now where he can’t reach Tom and his mum. The seaside community around them is cosy and sweet in a way that I would sometimes find too saccharine but, here, feels just right.When Zofia’s dad tells her he’s met someone, and Tom’s mum does the same, they instantly dislike the idea. Although the pair believe they have nothing in common, when their parents announce they’re expecting a baby, Zofia and Tom realise their situation is a shared one. Two children, Zofia and Tom, both with one parent, discover that their parents have met at work and are dating.