Monday, February 25, 2013

Three Picked Herrings by Sally Gardner

Back in October I reviewed Sally Gardner's first Wings and Co book, Operation Bunny and if you read that you'll guess I was eagerly awaiting the next in the series. It arrived a short while ago and I got down to reading it as soon as the desk cleared. And yes, it's another little gem.


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This time our heroine, Emily Vole, along with Buster, the wingless fairy, and Fidget, the cat,  find themselves swamped with work when three, at first apparently different, cases land in their laps. First there's the mysterious shooting-up-into-the-air of Sir Walter Cross, then there's Mr Rollo's business rollercoaster and finally Pandora's demolished wedding. And as if that were not enough, one of the keys that Emily keeps decides that this would be the perfect moment to return the wings to the one fairy Buster would really rather not have around. 

Of course, the new fairy, Buster's Aunt Lettice, proves to be an invaluable addition to the investigative team, especially when it comes to dealing with the cast of gormless and thuggish faery folk who's incompetence and maliciousness lie behind the mysteries. Emily, Buster and Fidget succeed in solving the cases and restoring some degree of normality for their clients and there's even a little treat in store for Buster at the end.

And as I said above, this is just as good as the first book. There's so much fun and silliness here and once again David Roberts' illustrations are pitched perfectly. I think Sally Gardner has a real winner with this series. Younger readers will love it and parents won't mind reading it aloud either. Now, let's hope there's another one coming out soon.

The lovely people at Orion Books provided this review copy. If you would like to get your own please click through from here and Amazon will kindly send a small contribution towards maintaining this blog.