This is my weekly meme celebrating amazing middle-grade books. I hope others will enjoy taking part in this too!
How to take part:
- Post a picture of the front cover of a middle-grade book which you have read and would recommend to others with details of the author, illustrator and publisher.
- Open the book to page 11 and share your favourite sentence.
- Write three words to describe the book.
- Either share why you would recommend this book, or link to your review.
This week, I’m celebrating …
Published by Farshore
Favourite Sentence from Page 11:
Once again, Ray found herself tumbling to the ground … landing bottom first in a patch of sparkly silver flowers called Snowpogglian Dalooloos, which erupted with a flurry of little white-winged bugs.
This book in three words:
WEATHER-MAGIC, FRIENDSHIP, EXCITEMENT
Rainbow Grey is a wonderfully charming, magical and fun-filled adventure, an absolute joy that swept me into a cornucopia of delight: marvellous world-building; excitement, twists and danger; fantastic friendships; and, an exploding cloud-cat!
Ray Grey lives in The Weatherlands which is home to Weatherlings who channel breath-taking weather magic. However, Ray has no weather magic, but she does not let this stop her in her determination to be an Earth Explorer, just like her hero, La Blaze DeLight. I love Ray’s curious nature and how she finds delight in the ordinary items her father brings back from Earth.
Whilst her friends attend lessons in weather magic at the Sky Academy School, Ray spends time reading and finds a book, ‘The Magic of Rainbows’, which contains clues to a secret treasure on Earth. On the day of the Eclipse Festival, Ray is goaded into breaking the rules about travelling to Earth unaccompanied and, once there, makes an incredible discovery … a discovery that will change her life forever as her magical ability is released, transforming her into … RAINBOW GREY!
And so begins a dazzling adventure, brimming with excitement, danger and humour, as Rainbow discovers more about her new-found Rainbow magic; as she uncovers secrets and reveals truths; and, as she battles against the Rogue Weatherlings who are intent on causing destruction and chaos on Earth through violent storms, storms of – yes! – knickers! A knicker-nado – just brilliant! Luckily for Nim, she has help along the way from her trusty cloud-cat Nim and her friends Snowden and Droplett.
Rainbow is the most wonderful young girl. She is kind, determined, caring and, at times, impulsive. Even when she finds some things difficult, she perseveres. Rainbow has fantastic, loyal and supportive, friends in Snowden and Droplett who add a lot of fun to the story. And then, of course, she has her exploding cloud-cat, Nim, who I absolutely adored. What’s not to love about a farting, exploding cloud-cat who sometimes has his eyes stuck to his bottom? I’ll never look at a cloud in the same way again!
The world-building is superb – a real feast for the imagination! I was completely immersed in this captivating world of cloud homes with silver linings, in the different roles of Weatherlings and in the history of Rainbow Weatherlings and the Rogues which I found fascinating. I loved the playfulness of the language, the perfection of the character names (I’m just mentioning Coo Lar Lar!), the naughty sense of humour and the brilliance of the magical system with the use of weather instruments, puddle-porting and travelling on cloud companions – and then, there’s the cakes!
The partial and full-page illustrations are an absolute treat and really capture the magic, wonder and fun in this fantastic story. I’m a huge fan of maps in books, and this story has a truly stunning one which I loved poring over.
This is an utterly joyous story, with some brilliant twists, that will capture and entrance young – and (ahem!) older readers. A magical adventure with kindness, family and friendship at its heart. I can’t wait for the next book in this series!
Thank you to Fritha and Farshore for a proof copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
I’d love if anyone who wants to give this meme a go would comment in the comments box and include a link to your post so I can visit, comment and find some great middle-grade recommendations. If you do create a post and are on Twitter, and would like to share your post, please use the hashtag #MGTakesOnThursday so I can find it, read it and share it!
Book Craic 