Little Goddess Girls – Persephone & the Unicorn’s Ruby

Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams's Persephone & the Unicorn's Ruby is a sweet, silly Little Goddess Girls treasure hunt for 7 year olds, with a chocolate castle and a bunny who worries about EVERYTHING.

What happens

Persephone and her friend Aphrodite are girl goddesses on Mount Olympus, still learning how their powers work. Four jewels have been stolen from Zeus's tower by the Four Winds, and the two friends are off to find the ruby.

On the Hello Brick Road they meet Adonis Bunnyboy. He's a snow-white bunny with a rainbow bow, and he'd like to be somebody's pet. Whose, though?

Both girls want him. Persephone, who hardly ever gets cross, suddenly feels very cross with her friend.

Adonis lives in the Castle of What-Ifs. It's built of chocolate, with gingerbread houses, marshmallow roofs and a fountain of chocolate milk. Everyone inside is a worrier. What if a bear trips you up? What if it rains and the whole castle melts?

Then the bunny king's ears go missing (they're under his crown). It's a very daft scene, and young readers will spot the answer long before the bunnies do.

It's a proper first chapter book, full of chat and quick jokes, with a word list at the back to help with the trickier words like emerald and mortal.

Underneath the jokes, it's about sharing and worrying. The bunnies' what-ifs are funny, but they're a gentle way into talking about real worries. There are questions at the end that invite your reader to do just that.

The girls met only a few weeks ago and have already had lots of adventures, so this is a later book in the series. The story finishes with them skipping off towards the next jewel, part of a bigger hunt.

Got a reader who loves unicorns, sweets and friends who make up after a squabble? This one hits the spot.

What to read next

The hunt started with Athena. If they'd like to see it from her side, try Athena's hunt for the mermaid's pearl, where a talking mermaid statue at the shopping centre asks for her help.