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Sarah Courtauld's Buckle and Squash: The Perilous Princess Plot is a gloriously silly fairy-tale adventure for 7 year olds about two sisters who couldn't be more different.
Eliza wants to fight dragons and solve mysteries. Her big sister Lavender wants to marry a prince. Any prince will do (she has seven portraits stuck on her bedroom wall already). Home is Old Tumbledown Farm, with Grandma Maud and a goat called Gertrude. Even their village is called The Middle of Nowhere.
One night Lavender has what she thinks is a brilliant idea. No prince in his right mind would go near the forest full of vicious, windy dragons. So what about a prince who ISN'T in his right mind? Off she creeps with the map, hoping to be rescued.
Meanwhile a villain called Mordmont has gambled away half his castle. He needs money fast, so he decides to kidnap a princess and ask for a ransom. And who do you think is wandering about in a pointy princess hat, singing?
So Eliza sets off to get her back, riding one very reluctant goat.
The jokes come thick and fast. Lavender rhymes "prince" with "prince" in her terrible songs. There are three wizards whose weapons are all made of wool. A tree called Sidney keeps popping up with little notes for the reader. It's the sort of silly that grown-ups really enjoy reading aloud too.
Some of the humour is on the dark side, which is worth a mention. We learn early on that the girls' parents were eaten by a bear at the village festival, told as a one-line joke. Grandma Maud's bedtime stories tend to end with the Black Death! Most children will just giggle. A very literal or anxious reader might need a quick chat about what's a joke.
If your reader likes a heroine who'd rather have a bow and arrow than a ball gown, Eliza is perfect.
Fancy more knights, wizards and dragons played for laughs? Try Dragons at Crumbling Castle. King Arthur's knights are all away, so the only person left to send against the dragons is a small boy called Ralph.
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