Karen McCombie’s Angels Like Me is a warm, funny friendship story for 9 year olds about a shy girl whose next-door neighbours happen to be real angels.<\/p>\n
Riley Roberts has a secret she’s bursting to tell. Sunshine, Kitt and Pearl, the three girls who moved in next door, are trainee angels. Hidden wings and all!<\/p>\n
They’re learning nine special skills to help people who’ve “lost their shine”. Reading minds. Talking without making a sound. Even rewinding time by a minute or so. Riley gets to peek into their world, and she still can’t quite believe they like ordinary, un-amazing her.<\/p>\n
This is the third book about Riley and the angels, so your reader will get the most out of it if they’ve met everyone already.<\/p>\n
It’s a new year and a new term. School is putting on a Frost Fair and there are auditions, which queen of mean Lauren Mayhew is sure she’ll win. Then a lump of chewing gum ends up tangled in Lauren’s hair in assembly. Was that a bit of naughty magic? And whose?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Riley keeps hearing a sweet old-fashioned tune that nobody else can hear.<\/p>\n
At home there’s plenty going on too. Her little sort-of-stepsister Dot has been pinching her nail varnish (and pinging her knickers across the bedroom with a friend). Dot’s mum Hazel takes Dot’s side, and even Dad thinks it’s funny. It’s written so well that you completely feel Riley’s outrage, while probably giggling at the same time!<\/p>\n
Underneath the fun there’s something more tender. Riley’s mum died in an accident when Riley was a baby, and Dad has always found it too hard to talk about her. So when he flicks through her photo album and laughs about what a rotten cook Mum was, it’s a HUGE moment for Riley. Her New Year wish is simply to feel closer to her mum.<\/p>\n
Riley tells the story herself, in lots of short chatty lines, lists and little asides. It’s a bit like chatting with a friend who has a lot of feelings and not quite enough courage to say them all out loud.<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a reader who loves magic tucked inside ordinary school life, this series is lovely. The mean girls are properly mean, and the magic stays just mysterious enough.<\/p>\n
If they want to go back and see more of Riley’s life with the girls next door, Angels in Training is the second book in the series. It’s set a few weeks earlier, on a frosty November weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karen McCombie’s Angels Like Me is a warm, funny friendship story for 9 year olds about a shy girl whose next-door neighbours happen to be real angels. Riley Roberts has a secret she’s bursting to tell. Sunshine, Kitt and Pearl, the three girls who moved in next door, are trainee angels. Hidden wings and all! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13029,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":6820,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Angels in Training","lr_seo_hook":"Trainee angels next door, a Frost Fair audition and a tune only Riley hears."},"book_tag":[20],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[531],"class_list":["post-6821","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-real-life-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-karen-mccombie"],"yoast_title":"Angels Like Me by Karen McCombie | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Trainee angels next door, a Frost Fair audition and a tune only Riley hears. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n