Buy the book from Amazon UK
Junior Fiction
Doubleday
Hardback £10.99
ISBN: 0385606052
Reviewed by Angela Solomons
[Armadillo 6.1 Spring 2004]
Thirteen year old Violet is finding life difficult: she finds it hard to make friends, and the behaviour of her older brother, Will, has got more threatening since he discovered that he was adopted. A new girl at school, Jasmine, immediately takes a liking to her, and seems to share Violets passion for her favourite author, Caspar Dream, who writes books about fairies. When Will and Jasmine meet, she feels betrayed by them and runs away to meet Caspar. When she returns she finds that Jasmine is still øbest friends" with her, and she resolves Wills conflict with his adoptive parents.
This story skilfully interweaves three separate plots; Violets interest with fairies, Wills problems and her wish to have a special friend of her own. Nick Sharrats illustrations portray not only Caspar Dreams books but also follow the plotline, a very clever device not immediately apparent on first reading. Violets loneliness is very well drawn, but the scene where Will and Jasmine apparently exclude her is less believable in my opinion. But this does not detract from the book as a whole ¨ it is a magical tale, cleverly told and should be just as popular as Jacqueline Wilsons previous novels.