Kira the Rainbow Princess

Jason R. James's Kira the Rainbow Princess is a magical adventure for 8 year olds about a girl with bright pink hair who comes home from school to find her mum gone.

What happens

Kira is the shortest girl in her class. She trips over her shoelaces and forgets her lunchbox. And thanks to Sophia Masters, the most popular girl at school, Kira the Weird is what everyone calls her. Some days she ends up crying in the school toilets.

But today she's won the spelling bee (she spelled grey with an E, and it still counted!). She gets home with her medal round her neck to find the house turned upside down. Her mum is missing. And two green, saggy, very smelly zombies are standing in the kitchen.

That's when her old teddy bear Snugg jumps out of her arms, pops out a set of claws and tells the zombies to clear off. It turns out Snugg is Snugg the Destroyer, captain of the Royal Guard. And Kira isn't Kira the Weird at all. She's a Rainbow Princess, heir to a throne in another world.

Who hasn't wished their favourite toy would come to life and stick up for them? That's really the heart of this book. Snugg is fierce and loyal and a bit grumpy, and he calls Kira "Your Highness" even while she's carrying him around in her backpack.

The adventure moves fast. There's a boy called Ben hiding in a cupboard who insists he's a real knight (Snugg is VERY sure he isn't). There's a spell that gives Kira giant purple butterfly wings just in time to float off a roof. And there's Fred, a friendly zombie who lives in a cosy house built into a mountain of rubbish at the city dump.

It's also funny. Ben has never eaten pizza before, and his face when he tries it is one of the best bits.

Underneath the magic, the bullying is very real. Kira's mum tells her that people like Sophia are only mean because they're scared, which Kira doesn't believe for a second. Plenty of children will recognise that feeling.

What to read next

If your reader has ever felt like the odd one out, Kira's story carries on in Kira and the Rat Queen, which opens with a birthday party that turns into a flood of rats.