Angela Nicely 2 – Queen Bee!

Alan MacDonald's Angela Nicely Queen Bee is a bundle of three cheeky stories for 6 year olds about a girl who's always sure her latest idea is her best one.

What happens

This is the second Angela Nicely book. Angela lives next door to Bertie (who is her boyfriend, according to her, whatever he says) and she runs the GOBS club with her friends Laura and Maisie. GOBS stands for Girls Only, Boys Smell, which tells you most of what you need to know!

In the first story Angela decides her teacher, Miss Darling, has been dumped, because she keeps crying. So Angela writes two love letters, one for Miss Darling and one for shy Mr Weakly. She even glues his hair into spikes to make him look more like James Bond. What could possibly go wrong?

Then there's a lemonade stall for a charity bike ride. Angela's homemade lemonade is bitty, very sugary and made with her mum's posh fizzy water. To get the cyclists to stop, she turns the route sign so it points into her own front garden. You can imagine how that goes with hundreds of bikes coming over the hill!

The last story is a bit different. Twin bullies block the alley to school and make Angela pay to get through. They even make her a mud sandwich. Angela being Angela, she takes a big bite rather than back down. Her revenge plan is clever and doesn't involve a single punch, just Bertie's big sister Suzy and some perfect timing.

If your reader has ever had trouble with bullies, that one can be a satisfying story to read together. The twins are mean but never really frightening, and they get exactly what they deserve.

Angela is bossy, fibs a bit and is certain she's always right. Readers will probably spot the holes in her plans long before she does, which is half the fun. Her friends are great too. Maisie is sensible (and a bit of a bossy boots herself) and Laura always seems to end up doing the risky bit.

If you've got a reader who already knows Angela from the Dirty Bertie books, they'll love seeing things from her side for a change.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Superstar sees Angela take on show-off Tiffany Charmers in a class talent contest, with a hypnotist act, no less.