Amelia Fang and the Naughty Caticorns

Laura Ellen Anderson's Amelia Fang and the Naughty Caticorns is a gloriously gross monster story for 7 year olds about a little vampire who's about to become a big sister.

What happens

Amelia can't wait for the new baby to arrive. Her mum, meanwhile, is crying over mouldy beans, eating Foot Fudge by the boxful and demanding a shinier toilet seat. (Expecting a baby isn't easy, even for vampires.)

Then Aunt Lavitora swoops in. She's loud, she's very busy and important (just ask her), and she's dropping off her three caticorns for the night. Gerrard, Butler and Mo are tiny fluffy cats with unicorn horns, and they look like the sweetest things Amelia has ever seen.

Amelia offers to look after them. It's her chance to show everyone what a FANGTASTIC big sister she'll be. Then the baby starts to arrive, her parents rush off to the infirmary through a door on the third floor, and Amelia and her friends are on their own.

Five minutes later, the caticorns have eaten a door made of pizza. They're zooming round the mansion on a vacuum cleaner, swinging off the roof and writing BUM on the outside wall in glitter paint.

It's chaos, and it's hilarious. Florence the yeti shouts everything in capitals, Grimaldi the little grim reaper faints at the scary bits and Squashy the pet pumpkin blows raspberries. The jokes are the upside-down kind, where a dreary evening is a lovely one and the breakfast cereal is shaped like arms.

There's something sweet underneath too. The caticorns keep tugging at their aunt's skirt and getting told "not now". Amelia badly wants her mum and dad to notice what a good big sister she'll be. Your reader might start to wonder whether the caticorns are naughty or just lonely.

For a child with a new brother or sister on the way, this is a fun way into those feelings without it getting heavy. And if they just love revolting food and silly monsters, they'll be laughing all the way through.

What to read next

If they've fallen for the gang, Amelia Fang and the Lost Yeti Treasures takes them to Florence's grand-yeti's enormous birthday party deep inside Yeti Mountain.