Indie in Disguise: Stylist-ing and Other Jobs
Katie Clapham illustrated by Emma Farrarons
Walker Books

This contains fun four short stories about Indie, an highly imaginative little girl with a large personality and a knack for theatrics. She loves dressing up, both herself and others, and role-play.

In this first book in what I believe is to be a series, she takes on four different roles starting with that of a stylist. First off she has to dress herself appropriately with lots of necklaces, her star-shaped sun glasses and funky un-matching socks, a jacket, dress and top. But how much style is too much: she starts by adding bracelets to her Mum’s outfit, plus Dad’s over-large sun glasses, a large floppy hat and fur-trimmed gloves and persuading her to put on her silvery high heels. In the end some of these are removed as Indie considered she’d given Mum ‘too much style’ and anyhow, she had another use for a couple of the items.

The second story sees Indie at the grandparents’ trying her hand at being a cleaner. For this job she ‘borrows’ an apron with the words My Kitchen! My Rules! emblazoned across the front. But can cleaning up during the time her gran is baking buns really be a good idea?

In story three Indie is at her friend Sydney’s house and there ‘Doctor Indie the Dentist’ extracts a tooth belonging to Sydney’s little brother, Teddy. This is a tricky task as it involves some balancing of the chair legs.

Finally, Indie acts out the role of a librarian. Successful or not? That depends on whose viewpoint you take and you’ll need to get a copy of the book to discover how successful Indie is. It’s ideal for new solo readers or for sharing with an adult either at home or in a KS1 classroom.