Princess Mirror-Belle and the Flying Horse

Julia Donaldson's Princess Mirror-Belle and the Flying Horse is a funny read for 7 year olds in which a girl breaks her arm and her mirror double turns up in hospital with a matching plaster.

What happens

Ellen has fallen off her bike (she wasn't wearing her helmet) and has to stay in hospital overnight. Mum goes home, and Ellen feels a bit scared on her own.

Then, in the bathroom mirror the next morning, there's Princess Mirror-Belle. She's in the same hospital pyjamas, except her plaster is on the other arm. She didn't fall off a bike, of course. Whoever heard of a princess on a bicycle? She fell off her flying horse.

This is the fifth Mirror-Belle book and it has two stories. The first one is properly chaotic. Mirror-Belle climbs into Ellen's bed, sends back the cornflakes and asks for a lightly boiled peacock's egg instead. The doctor decides somebody has plastered the wrong arm. Ellen has to chase her through the corridors to the plaster room before anyone cuts the plaster off.

There's a lovely joke running through it about left and right and back-to-front writing. Your reader will probably work out what's going on long before the grown-ups do!

In the second story the leisure centre is having an open day. Mirror-Belle jogs out of the gym mirrors hunting for a magic ball. Her wicked fairy godmother has turned everyone in the palace to stone, apparently, and only the ball can break the spell.

So she has a go at everything. She checks the gym attendant's sleeve in case the ball's hidden in there (it's his muscles). She scores a spectacular own goal at five-a-side and shouts "Goal!" in the tennis.

Ellen loses her temper on the putting green, and for a moment Mirror-Belle looks close to tears. It's a nice, real little falling-out. Then she's off again, emptying the toddlers' ball pool one ball at a time.

If you've got a child with a hospital stay coming up, the first story might be a gentle one to share. The ward, the nurses with different coloured belts and the wobbly left-handed writing are all very everyday, and nothing scary happens.

Each story stands on its own, and they're a good length for a bedtime each.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Princess Mirror-Belle and the Sea Monster's Cave is the next in the series. Ellen is on a seaside holiday with her grandparents, and Mirror-Belle dives out of a mermaid mirror in a gift shop.