Red Moon Rising

Paula Harrison's Red Moon Rising is a faerie adventure for 10 year olds about a girl who finds out on her twelfth birthday that she isn't quite who she thought she was.

What happens

It's the last day of term and Laney's water bottle starts to bubble in her hand. Then the school water fountain explodes and floods the corridor. Guess who gets the blame? (Mean girl Jessie makes sure of that.)

Her birthday doesn't get any better. Her dad won't have anything that burns in the house, not even candles on a cake. When Laney holds one anyway and burns her finger, pain rushes right through her. Afterwards her eyes have gold rings round the middle.

And there's a blood-red full moon hanging over the village.

Down by the river that night she comes across a dark figure crouched in a cold, bitter fog, and a faint song that makes her want to step closer. It's properly creepy!

The next morning cool, cat-eyed Claudia from school tells her the truth. Laney's a faerie. So is Claudia, and so are quite a few people in their sleepy village of Skellmore.

This is where it really comes alive. Once Laney can see it, Skellmore looks completely different. The pet shop has a giant pair of green cat's eyes in its wall (and a mouth that hisses). A house on the corner looks like a tree trunk. Mrs Whitefern, the little old lady with all the hats who always had cookies for the local children, grows an orange tree from a pip in about thirty seconds.

Laney is so easy to root for. She's stubborn, curious and, in Claudia's words, "a right disaster area". Anyone who's ever felt like the odd one out at school will get her straight away.

The scary moments are genuinely scary, especially that figure in the fog. The short opening scene has toddler Laney watching one of the winged figures in the sky fall after a bright flash. Nothing is gory, though, and the creepiness is the fun kind for most readers.

What to read next

If they'd love another girl who suddenly starts seeing a hidden world nobody else notices, try Robyn Silver: The Midnight Chimes. Robyn is stuck in the middle of five children when a spiny creature starts turning up in the garden at midnight.