Hodder ISBN 9781444931600 £5.99
How poignant it has been to read this last novel by the late, wonderfully irreverent, Babette Cole. Once again, her feisty, non-stereotypical Princess Smartypants, aided by her stalwart friends are required to solve a problem, this time in the neighbouring Fairy Land. She learns from her own fairy godmother that recently, the usual good wishes granted by fairy godmothers have been replaced by a website selling wishes online with disastrous results. It does not take long to discover that Araminta Allspell is behind this, aided by the Fairy Geek Mothers she had acquired along with her new smartphone from Witchphone Warehouse. The chaos brought to Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and countless others is dire and risks children having no experience of magic and happy endings. Fortunately, the princess has a non- digital plan involving her grumpy pony Powderpuff…. This hilarious short chapter book is full of Babette Cole’s wonderful language play in all the characters’ names, her trademark comic black line illustrations, along with some bang up to date technology. Expectations are subverted, but it is the wonderful irony of this book that here, even the subversion is subverted. The great feminist, anti-storybook princess turns out to be a champion of traditional fairytales. She sees the value of children knowing the characteristics of the genre, for its continuity in the canon or else children will ‘have nothing to dream about’. Wise words indeed. KS1 and lower KS2 readers will enjoy this in shared, paired or independent reading and while we can no longer look forward to the sequel hinted at in the ending, Cole’s new generation of readers can, perhaps, make up their own tale set in Wonderland. A fitting legacy for such an influential author.
Sue Barrett, retired teacher and lecturer
