Lottie Luna and the Giant Gargoyle

Vivian French's Lottie Luna and the Giant Gargoyle is a funny school story for 7 year olds about a werewolf princess with a very big secret to keep.

What happens

Lottie loves Shadow Academy because nobody there knows she's a princess. Only her two best friends, Wilf and Marjory, are in on it. Everyone else thinks she's an ordinary werewolf cub, and that's exactly how Lottie likes it.

Then Mrs Wilkolak announces the end-of-term talent show. This year it's a competition, with a giant silver gargoyle for the winner. And every family gets a grand personal invitation.

Including the king and queen!

Poor Lottie. She asks the head teacher, Madam Grubeloff, not to invite them. She hides the invitation in her bedside cabinet. Then her father announces that if the other pupils don't treat her like a princess, he'll take her out of school and hire a private tutor. What's a werewolf to do?

Awful Aggie doesn't help. She's writing a very long poem about herself called The Heroic Tale of Awesome Agatha (her story last year sent Mrs Wilkolak to sleep) and she'd love the king to be the judge.

It's a light, bouncy read with lots going on. Lottie was born during a lunar eclipse, which gave her amazing strength, eyesight and hearing, and her sharp ears are how she overhears Aggie's plotting. Her moonstone necklace shines when she's happy and goes dull and grey when she's miserable, so you always know how she's feeling. Her pet bat Jaws flaps along too.

The funniest bits are at home in the castle. King Lupo is very keen on everyone being kingly and princessy. The queen finds Lottie a truly ghastly green ballgown that belonged to a gloomy-looking ancestor in a portrait, and Lottie's horror is lovely to read.

Wilf and Marjory are brilliant friends. Their magic act (starring a rabbit called Hopper who's got too fat for his hat) is a disaster waiting to happen, and Wilf is the one who comes up with a plan when Lottie is at her lowest.

If you've got a reader who worries about fitting in, or about their family showing them up in front of everyone, they'll feel for Lottie. It's all very gentle though, with plenty of jokes and a lot of heart.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, Lottie Luna and the Fang Fairy takes the same class camping in the Greater Growling Woods, where Aggie tries to scare little Larry about the fairy who's coming for his wobbly tooth.