Orion ISBN 978151007564 £7.99
Fly has never known a life other than the orphanage and being a chimney sweep’s assistant, but one day she decides to escape by climbing down a chimney. Unfortunately what she discovers seems even worse than her previous life, because she ends up in a room with a rather large tiger. From then on thing become even stranger as she discovers that she can understand what the tiger is saying; not only that, but the tiger seems to know her and says that she is a princess. What happens when they escape and how they solve the mystery of Fly’s parentage make for a thrilling and magical story.
The author has created a strong and resourceful heroine who has had to fight for her survival since a very young age. But there are also a wide range of animal characters and we are soon caught up in the attempts to save them from incarceration and ill treatment. We also have a group of servants who are being threatened by their master, a truly nasty villain who is trying to capture Fly. This is a story that mixes the worst of Victorian London with elements of the Far East and has the reader devouring the story as the plot moves along at a tremendous pace. This is one for KS2 children as the author does not pull any punches in her descriptions of the events that take place as the story unfolds. It is definitely one to look out for.
Margaret Pemberton