Dottie Blanket and the Hilltop

Wendy Meddour's Dottie Blanket and the Hilltop is a feel-good story for 8 year olds about a city girl whose biggest wish comes true.

What happens

Dottie believes in exactly one kind of magic. You close your eyes tight, stand on one leg and make a wish. She practises every night, and there's one wish she makes more than any other.

Since Dad lost his job, the Blankets have been squashed into a tiny flat between a fish market and a railway station. Every time a train goes past, the whole flat shakes. Dad shouts "Positions!", Mum puts a cycling helmet on the baby and Dottie dives under the kitchen table. (It's very, VERY funny.)

The worst bit is that Dottie can't get rid of the smell. The children at school have horrible nicknames for her, and it's made her very sad.

Then Dad finds a new job, and it comes with a little cottage on a green hilltop in Wales, right next door to a shop with big jars of sweets in the window!

Up on the hilltop Dottie meets a whole new cast of neighbours. There's Blod the farmer, who calls everyone "bach". There's Winnie Crisp from the shop, who has the messiest bedroom ever and a secret den with a booby trap. And there's Tom Tractor, who does the school run in a Land Rover with a lamb on Dottie's lap.

It reads like a warm hug. The chapters are short and bouncy, and the narrator chats away to you in brackets. Baby Joe mostly just burps, and each time we're told what he probably meant. Best of all is Dottie's hobby of "collecting" moments by squeezing her eyes shut and taking a picture in her head. Isn't that a lovely idea?

It's also spot on about being the new girl. Dottie is SO nervous about her new school that she locks herself in the bathroom. But the hilltop children are curious rather than cruel, and a few Welsh words get sprinkled in along the way.

If your reader is moving house, starting a new school or just loves the idea of living somewhere wild, this is a perfect choice.

What to read next

If they fall for the Welsh hills, Elen's Island would be a lovely next step. Elen is packed off on a train to stay with a gran she can't even remember, and she's absolutely furious about it.