Princess BMX: Enchanted meets BMX!

Marie Basting's Princess BMX: Enchanted meets BMX is a laugh-out-loud fantasy for 8 year olds about a bored princess who tumbles into our world and falls in love with bikes.

What happens

Princess Avariella of Biscotti has chocolate blossom outside her window, a castle full of ridiculous pets and a very strict dad. She also has no friends at all. A princess is not expected to play with her subjects, or run, or make friends, or do anything much.

So she slides down the grand staircase in a potato sack instead. Who wouldn't?

Then a sweet purple mist starts pouring out of the ballroom fireplace. Her puppy jumps into a hole where the grate should be, and she follows him. She lands in a patch of weeds by a canal in Camden, London.

What follows is SO funny. Avariella has never seen a car, a train or a phone. She marches off to King's Cross to find the king (there isn't one). She thinks a boy's comment about her dog being a "cockapoo" is shockingly rude. Then, in a skate park, she sees a girl fly into the air on a BMX and decides she has to try it.

A kind boy called Ethan offers to teach her. She's never ridden a bike, falls off a zillion times and grazes her elbow. When she finally pedals away on her own it's a lovely moment.

Avariella tells the story herself, straight to the reader, and her voice is fabulous. She says things like "Oh my giddy goblin!" and "Troll poop!" and turns everything into a joke. But underneath there's real loneliness, and the chance of a friend matters to her very much.

There's a mystery building too. Her great-aunt Maude keeps a spare eyeball in a jar and a pet teabag called Tyson. She hints at a woman the family never talks about. And in the park, a stylish stranger with a bald little dog seems to know Avariella's name.

If you've got a reader who likes their magic mixed up with real life, and loves a heroine who breaks all the rules, this is a real treat.

What to read next

For more from the same author, try My Family and Other Romans. Silvia's dad is completely obsessed with ancient Rome, and when he somehow ends up there, she has to go after him.