Tag Sahar Haghgoo

Princess Minna: The Wicked Wood / Mermaid Academy: Maya and Rainbow

jillrbennett Leave a comment

These are additions to popular Nosy Crow series for younger readers: thanks to the publisher for sending them for review

Princess Minna: The Wicked Wood
Kirsty Applebaum, illustrated by Sahar Haghgoo

There’s nothing multi-talented young Princess Minna likes better that sorting out problems in her kingdom but she wakes one morning to discover that not only are her parents, the King and Queen missing but so too is her best friend, Lorenzo the dragon. This requires help, she decides. She dashes into town where she learns from some woodcutters that the missing characters were heading for the Wicked Wood where resides the Wicked Witch and all manner of wicked creatures. Somebody needs to rescue them but those woods are so terribly creepy that Princess Minna hopes one of the townsfolk will offer to go instead of her. Up steps Little Betty Button and with a bag of breadcrumbs, she sets forth leaving a trail, through the Enchanted Forest towards Wicked Woods; but she doesn’t return. A similar thing happens with two more volunteers.

Eventually Minna realises there’s no option but to go herself. After a time she reaches a clearing and what she discovers there is a real surprise. A very unusual house. Yes all the missing characters are there but almost immediately, so too is the ‘Wicked Witch’. But is she really the wicked character she’s rumoured to be? And why are the Big, Queen and Lorenzo in the Wicked Woods? To reveal the reason would be to spoil the story so I’ll just say all ends happily with Minna et al safely back at Castle Tall-Towers.

Borrowing the occasional traditional fairy tale trope, team Applebaum and Hagoo has created another magical story for readers just starting to fly solo.

Mermaid Academy: Maya and Rainbow
Julie Sykes and Linda Chapman, illustrated by Lucy Truman

As the story opens lesson-loving, organised Maya wonders whether she and her fun loving dolphin, Rainbow will ever bond; could it be that they’re just too different to become real partners?
Then comes an announcement from Dr Oceania: to help them become good ocean guardians, all the first year students and their dolphins are to go on a team-building camping trip to the Northern Fjords to study the flora and fauna. Each dorm must complete a co-operative project. They’ll leave the very next day by Magical Globe, so the students must make sure they have the necessary equipment ready and Maya and her dorm friends are determined to come up with a very special, winning project.

Before leaving they decide on the focus of their project. Before leaving too, Maya realises that she’s not as good at making bubble tunnels as she is at everything else she’s tried and not being perfect is something that bothers her a lot. However she doesn’t ask her friends for help for fear of losing her star pupil image. But she’ll come to regret this decision during the three days camping expedition.

Will she change her mind and have the courage to seek assistance? Possibly, after some timely conversation with Rainbow …

Containing an important life lesson, this latest Mermaid Academy adventure has all the magical ingredients series followers enjoy including Lucy Truman’s black and white illustrations.

Princess Minna: The Best Princess / Dragon Storm: Skye and Soulsinger

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Both these books are additions to Nosy Crow series that are hugely popular with fantasy loving newly independent readers: thanks to the publisher for sending them for review

Princess Minna: The Best Princess
Kirsty Applebaum, illustrated by Sahar Haghgoo

For those not familiar with Princess Minna, she lives in Castle Tall-Towers with the King and Queen, wizard Raymond and Lorenzo, the princess’s best dragon friend. Princess Minna loves to sort things out when something isn’t right in the kingdom and she also loves to hear her magic mirror say that she is the best princess of all.

One day though, when she asks the mirror her usual question, she is first puzzled and then very upset at its response: “Well, at the moment, Princess Sky-Blue is the best princess in all the kingdom.” Said princess is apparently on holiday in Princess Minna’s kingdom. Time for the resident princess to put her sorting out skills to use and get rid of this visitor.

Little does Princess Minna know however, that the rival princess also has a number of special skills for sorting things out and she is able to counter each of the brilliant ideas Princess Minna tries with one of her own. It’s only when a unicorn emergency suddenly hits the town that Princess Minna realises that she must reveal what she’s being trying to keep hidden from Princess Sky-Blue.

Will she be happy with what happens thereafter? Let’s just say that those doves are once more swooping around Castle Two-Towers, which once again has that delightful aroma of tutti-frutti ice cream.

These stories are deservedly popular with young first-chapter book readers and her latest adventure will win Princess Minna many more fans as well as pleasing her established followers.

Dragon Storm: Skye and Soulsinger
Alastair Chisholm, illustrated by Eric Deschamps

When Princess Skye returns to Riven, she discovers changes are afoot in the city. Quickly she learns that the kingdom of Draconis is under attack from two previously friendly kingdoms and the king himself has been hurt by dragons. As a result citizens of Draconis are preparing to go to war with the Dragonseer Guild. Skye though, is against the war and knows there is no threat from the Guild. So, when her brother is at a meeting, she creeps into Prince Harald’s room, locates the Dragon’s Eye and asks a question of it.

However, she is discovered in the act by her returning brother and has to postpone her anti-war plan until later. This she then sets in motion with the help of her friend and maid, Moira, eventually finding herself face to face with Mira.

Before long Skye meets Lady Bernie and is told that she’s a dragonseer whose dragon is Firedreamer, about which the princess has serious doubts, doubts which are later justified. Eventually with the danger of dragons disappearing for ever, thanks largely to her brother’s reckless warmongering deeds, Skye brings about a transformatory action and there before her is Soulsinger, her dragon.

How this story ends, I won’t divulge, but with Alastair Chisholm’s exciting storytelling and Eric Deschamp’s splendid illustrations, it will surely satisfy readers.

Rainbow Grey: Eye of the Storm / Princess Minna: The Unicorn Mix-Up

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Rainbow Grey: Eye of the Storm
Laura Ellen Anderson
Farshore

Writing a sequel that’s as brilliant as the magical Rainbow Grey is no mean feat but Laura Ellen Anderson pulls it off and I think, out-dazzles the first of the series.

With those magical powers at her fingertips – more or less – Ray is now fairly used to her life as Rainbow Grey but she can’t resist a little bit of showing off, which is NOT a good idea. Especially when one of her little cousins asks her to demonstrate her rainbow magic to a friend. It’s baby Cloudiculus’ first birthday, which means a puff pod party is being held. Soon, things spiral out of control: the puff pods are all empty, so the infant can’t bond with a cloud-creature. Who or what is responsible for the disappearance of the cloud creatures, one of which is Rainbow’s own much loved cloud cat, Nim? Disaster.

Ray and her friends now have a mystery to solve; Ray is convinced dark magic is behind the vanishings: she really needs to work out this puzzle and clear her name before cloud magic is forever lost.

With a degree of turbulence, brilliant world-building, a superb cast of characters (some new),

Ray’s indomitable spirit and resilience, and an abundance of magic, along with loyal friendship and the importance of team work in the community, not forgetting wonderfully whimsical illustrations all expertly woven together, this is a shimmering triumph.

Princess Minna: The Unicorn Mix-Up
Kirsty Applebaum, illustrated by Sahar Haghgoo
Nosy Crow

With its vibrant colour illustrations, this new Princess Minna adventure will I know be eagerly devoured by many new solo readers, especially those who have read the first book in the funny and enchanting series.

After sleeping badly, (not she thinks on account of peas under her mattress) Minna wakes to screeching squawking seagull sounds she now knows signify all is not well in the kingdom. She dashes down the long windy staircase to report this to her parents who are already having breakfast. The queen is especially anxious her daughter can sort out whatever the problem is as she and the king are expecting guests that very afternoon.

Minna rushes from the castle, soon hearing a cry for help from the T shop. It’s little Tommy Turrett announcing a unicorn emergency, (pause for some amusing wordplay). Said unicorn is apparently trampling through the T shop presumably leaving a trail of trash in its wake. Conveniently, taming unicorns just happens to be one of Minna’s special talents. But with her trusty sword in her hand, things don’t go quite to plan and by now the young princess is terribly tired.

The next thing she hears is a ribbet, followed swiftly by a shout of ‘frog emergency’. It’s fortunate that another of Minna’s special skills is kissing frogs. Unfortunately though, her extreme tiredness leads to a mix-up, swiftly followed by yet another emergency. Where will all this lead?

Happily, this time the princess’s prowess wins her a friend for life;

but that’s not quite the end of the story. Let’s just say there’s not just one, but a plethora of peas awaiting Minna as she finally returns to the castle, peas that provide a reassuring answer to her sleepiness mix-ups and the means of helping to put everything back to rights in the entire kingdom.

Princess Minna: The Enchanted Forest / The Allotmenteers

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Princess Minna: The Enchanted Forest
Kirsty Applebaum, illustrated by Sahar Haghgoo
Nosy Crow

Ideal for solo readers just making their first forays into chapter books, this is one of a new series giving a new, fresh twist to traditional fairy tales. Each spread is enticingly laid out with Sahar Haghgoo’s bold, bright artwork taking at least half of the space.

Residing in Castle Tall-Towers with the King and Queen and a wizard named Raymond, Princess Minna is a confident, determined and capable young girl, always up for a challenge. In this story it comes in the form of preventing a curse taking effect. Said curse was laid by a bad fairy upon Prince Welling-Tunboot on the day of his birth to come into play on his tenth birthday, the day the King and Queen receive urgent pleas for help from the prince’s parents.

Off she goes aback her best friend, dragon Lorenzo, walloooping towards Tunboot Palace in the centre of the Enchanted Forest, pausing en route to come to the aid of various other characters that also come aboard the dragon.

All the while the clock ticks ever closer to the sundown hour by which time the sleeping prince must be awoken or remain asleep for ever more.

With its girl-power element, this very funny subversion of the Sleeping Beauty story will assuredly enchant newly independent readers and leave them eagerly awaiting further episodes in the life of this spectacle-wearing little princess.

The Allotmenteers
Theo Moore, illustrated by Sarah Van Dongen
Ragged Bears

This small gem is full of life lessons for youngsters, especially those just starting out on chapter books. It features the Brown family. Changes are afoot in the family with young Tim about to start ‘big school’ thus enabling Mum to return to her old job at the library. Yes, that means more money but the downside is she’ll no longer have any time to spare for looking after their allotment, something the older children Tom and Sally are very upset about.

Determined not to let it happen they persuade their mum to let them take charge of the allotment and thus they become The Allotmenteers of the title, their first job being to replant the herb garden.
Very soon, the children are able to offer some of the veggies grown to their neighbours thereby changing the diet of at least one of them. Each of the three further chapters tells a different story though they all mesh well together, as more members of the local community are brought into the unfolding events and Tom and Sally become adept problem solvers as well as gardeners.

With recipes and tips on growing, this slim book is full of warmth, charm and community spirit, made all the more so by Sarah Van Dongen’s illustrations.