Tag Piccadilly

Luna Grace Girl From Outer Space: Sea Safari

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Luna Grace Girl From Outer Space: Sea Safari
Julie Sykes illustrated by Emily Jones
Piccadilly

Luna Grace, her Earth scientist parents, little brother, Leo, and Twizzle, her moon cat and best friend who communicates with her tail, are settling in to life on Earth having come from Starbright, their home planet. As this second story opens, Luna is excited about their visit to Puffin Island. Her Mum and Dad want to investigate the flora and fauna – dolphins and puffins included – respectively; Luna though has decided to look for a mermaid.


All the family, especially Luna, get excited when dolphins appear as they cross to the island. Once there some misunderstandings become evident, what it says about puffins in their Galaxy Traveller being one. Puffins do not puff, rather as the Graces and we readers learn, they make a purring sound. Another is that mermaids use empty mermaid’s purses to keep their coins in.

After lunch, when ‘pesky gulls’ make themselves a big nuisance, Luna has to wait for her swim and passes the time crafting a sand mermaid but at last she and Dad are ready – Dad to make notes on the shore, Luna to look for a mermaid in the sea. Some time later Luna hears a terrified squeak; a little dolphin is caught up in a rope. It’s an emergency so she decides to take matters in her own hands. Can she, with Twizzle’s help, rescue the creature before the tide is too far out and the boat is stuck in the harbour mud? And seeing a mermaid? What do you think?

This story is a delightful combination of words and pictures that together show much about Luna’s family and their relationships, mixing in gentle humour and a little risk-taking. With pops of colour in the illustrations and no spread without a picture, it’s just right for new solo readers.

Keep Dancing Lizzie Chu

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Keep Dancing Lizzie Chu
Maisie Chan
Piccadilly Press

The Lizzie Chu of the title lives in Glasgow with her grandfather, Wai Gong, a ballroom-dancing enthusiast, but since the death of his wife, Grandpa has started acting strangely, forgetting things and spending lots of time talking to his statue of the Chinese goddess of kindness, compassion and mercy, Guan Yin. Lizzie already has her hands full with shopping, cooking, even making sure household bills are paid, but now there are additional things to contend with such as Grandpa almost getting run over by a bus; and she does sometimes find it rather lonely since he’s started eating his evening meal in his room.

Then comes Lizzie’s twelfth birthday and it looks as though Wai Gong has forgotten all about it: not so her friends Chi and Tyler though and in the end she’s asked to go round to Chi’s to celebrate, which she does. When she gets home after an eventful time at the Phams, her grandpa surprises her by handing her an envelope, not from himself but from Grandma Kam. Inside are a jade pendant, a note and four tickets for the tea dance at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom in November.

Now all she has to do is to learn to dance and most important to get to Blackpool: it won’t be easy as there’s no money to spare and Wai Gong is now refusing to leave the flat and also insisting that he won’t go to Blackpool. Weirdly though when Lizzie goes to the Comic Con event she’s saved for ages to visit, she discovers her Grandpa there and he’s acting even more strangely than ever; and then he disappears.

To her relief when she returns to their flat there he is and something he says, gives Lizzie an idea of how to get Wai Gong to agree to go to Blackpool. Will she succeed in her mission? Perhaps with help from Chi and Tyler, some very clever costumes and a big brother with an old Mini, Lizzie might just manage it; but can anything help Wai Gong get better?

With her poignant, sometimes funny, and uplifting intergenerational story, once again Maisie Chen shows what a terrific storyteller she is; her characters endear themselves to you, especially Lizzie with her determination, powers of persuasion and problem solving. Cha-cha-cha anyone?

(Backmatter includes information about how to reach out for support with the dementia and grief issues raised in the story.)