The Rescue Princesses 11 – The Rainbow Opal

Paula Harrison's The Rainbow Opal is a Rescue Princesses adventure for 7 year olds about a poorly baby koala and a necklace that might just be magic.

What happens

It's the eleventh book in the series. Princess Summer's friends Maya, Lottie and Rosalind have come to stay at her palace in Mirrania, and she can't wait to show them the woods. There are possums, kangaroos and a mother koala with a joey riding on her back.

Then the joey turns up all alone under a bush, sneezing. The girls call him Custard, because he licks the custard off Summer's spoon at lunch. But he's shivering, and the vet who arrives by helicopter has no quick cure.

So Summer remembers an old story about her opal necklace. The jewel was found at the bottom of Rainbow Creek, and it's supposed to have healing powers if it goes back into the water it came from.

There's a second, much sillier problem running alongside. Summer has to have her official photo taken for the whole kingdom, and her mum has chosen an orange and lime-green dress with itchy frills. Summer says she looks like a frilly fruit salad!

Her friends are firmly on her side. The photographer's camera stand somehow ends up hidden behind the curtains (and it's pretty obvious who put it there). Who hasn't been made to wear something they hated for a photo?

That dress is a lovely running joke. It gets dragged through brambles and mud, and later it turns out to be useful in a way nobody would guess.

The four friends feel very different from each other too. Lottie is bouncy and full of ideas. Rosalind is impatient but very sensible. Maya is the gentle one who spots first that Custard is ill. Summer knows the woods better than anyone, so she leads the way.

It's worth knowing that Custard is properly poorly for a lot of the book. Summer overhears that he's terribly ill, and there's a worrying night when his breathing slows right down. The girls also sneak out in a thunderstorm and again at midnight, to a river swollen with rain.

A very soft-hearted reader might find that quite tense. For most, the magic jewel and the midnight mission will be the exciting part.

What to read next

If they'd like more of Summer, Lottie, Rosalind and Kanga the parrot, The Golden Shell is the next book. This time they're at a castle boarding school with a pet barn, and a nervous new girl called Ella has just arrived.