Dark Tree Shining

Paula Harrison's Dark Tree Shining is a faerie adventure for 10 year olds about a girl whose water magic just won't do as it's told.

What happens

Laney is a Mist faerie. She lives in a village where three faerie tribes hide in plain sight, and only other faeries can see the signs. The pet shop has giant green cat's eyes on its wall. The oak in the park glows gold at night.

This is the second book in the series (Red Moon Rising comes first). So Laney, Fletcher and Claudia are already deep in a secret hunt for the Myricals, five objects holding the power of the five tribes. They need to find them before the Shadow Faerie does.

The trouble is, Laney's powers only woke up six weeks ago. Most days she can't move a single drop of water. Then she gets cross and the whole kitchen gets soaked.

At her first Mist training session she's put in with the seven-year-olds. They're even nicknamed the Sevensies. It goes about as well as you'd expect (think boiling lake and a very angry Elder).

Anyone who's ever been the new kid who's behind will feel this one. Laney's embarrassment by the lake is so real, and so is the relief when her magic finally bursts out of her.

Her friendship with Fletcher and Claudia is lovely too. They're from rival tribes and bicker all day long (Claudia would honestly rather be shoe shopping). But they always turn up for her.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The prologue shows Laney as a toddler, ten years earlier, being hidden in a river by her mother while something attacks their house in the night. There's a creeping sense of being watched in the woods, and when Laney remembers the Shadow Faerie he's genuinely menacing. An easily spooked child might like company for the first few chapters. A reader who likes a bit of edge to their magic will love it.

What to read next

If they're after another girl who sees creatures nobody else can, Paula Harrison's Robyn Silver is a good next step. Robyn is stuck in the middle of five noisy brothers and sisters, until something spiny starts prowling round the garden at midnight.