Princess Mirror-Belle and the Party Hoppers

Julia Donaldson's Princess Mirror-Belle and the Party Hoppers is a funny, mischievous read for 7 year olds about a girl whose reflection keeps climbing out of the mirror.

What happens

Ellen is shy and sensible. Mirror-Belle looks exactly like her, except she's a princess (or says she is) and she's never sensible about anything.

This is the second Princess Mirror-Belle book, and it's three stories in one. In the first, Ellen is stuck at her cousin Anthony's birthday party. Anthony cheats at every game and wins most of them (his mum makes sure of that). And her friend Livvy is having a swimming party on the very same afternoon.

So when Mirror-Belle pops out of the hall mirror and offers to stand in for her, what's Ellen supposed to say? Off she runs to the pool. Of course it doesn't stay simple for long.

The second story takes the pair to a fair, where a wobbly mirror has made Mirror-Belle long and bendy and very, VERY good at hoopla. In the third, Ellen starts at her new school and Mirror-Belle turns up in the same uniform, with her tie stripes going the other way.

The fun is all in Mirror-Belle's cheek. She muddles every game and every word, so Musical Chairs becomes Musical Thrones. When the teacher can't read her back-to-front writing, Mirror-Belle kindly suggests the teacher could do with some reading practice. And she's always SO sure she's right.

Ellen is the one who gets the blame. If your reader has ever had a friend who was brilliant fun and slightly exhausting, they'll know exactly how she feels.

There's a sweet little thread about starting somewhere new, too. Ellen's family has just moved house and she's nervous about her new class. When two bigger boys keep pinching everyone's lunch, it's Mirror-Belle who deals with them, in a way that'll have your reader giggling.

Each story is a good bedtime length, so it works nicely as three evenings of reading together or a first go at something longer on their own.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, go back to the first Princess Mirror-Belle book, where Ellen and her reflection meet for the very first time.