The Rescue Princesses 14 – The Star Bracelet

Paula Harrison's The Star Bracelet is a magical animal rescue for 7 year olds about a princess who can't quite master ninja moves and a baby kangaroo who needs her.

What happens

Princess Lily practises creeping round her palace like a ninja. And just when she thinks she's got it, she knocks over the coat stand (CRASH!) or her shoe squeaks on the kitchen floor. If your reader has ever tried really hard at something and kept tripping up, they'll feel for her.

This is the fourteenth Rescue Princesses book, and it follows on from The Enchanted Ruby, where Lily first met Scarlett and Zina. It's worth starting there if you can. Now the three have magic rings to talk to each other, and the other two have flown to Estaland to stay.

Their first afternoon goes wrong fast. A visitor's driver beeps his horn at a mother kangaroo, and her joey tumbles out of the pouch onto the palace lawn. The mother bounds away over the wall.

So the girls name the joey Fudge. They feed her milk from a squeezy bottle and hang her up in a cloth bag padded with stripy socks (very sweet).

Matt the stablehand knows all about kangaroos and wants to open a sanctuary. The girls bake twenty-four kinds of cake for a sale to raise the money. But snooty Lady Hamilton doesn't want kangaroos anywhere near her house. And then the queen's flowerbeds are found trampled...

The bracelet in the title is Lily's own magic jewel. Scarlett has brought tiny chisels and pots of magic polish, and Lily rubs the silver one, the polish for wishes, onto a bracelet of pink crystal stars. Suddenly her feet hardly seem to touch the ground. Who wouldn't want one of those?

Her friends are lovely with her too. Scarlett gives her ninja lessons, and when Lily wants to give up she's reminded that Rescue Princesses never give up.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Fudge is left alone after a scary moment with a speeding car. Later a grown-up grabs her, shakes her and threatens to take her away for good. Lily gets her back, but a child who worries about animals being hurt might want you close by for that bit. Most will be far too busy cheering Lily on.

What to read next

For another girl standing up to a grown-up who wants animals gone, try The Sea Pony. Grace helps two friends who can talk to magical creatures, and a sneaky lady with an extra-large net is out to catch the sea ponies in her bay.