Alice-Miranda on Holiday

In this, the second installment of the adventures of precocious seven-year-old Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones, Alice-Miranda is heading home for the holidays after a very eventful first term at boarding school. With her is Jacinta Headlington-Bear, the school's second best tantrum thrower, and both girls are looking forward to a week of fun at Alice-Miranda's home, Highton Hall. But pretty soon, Alice-Miranda finds herself very busy once more dealing with everything from bad-tempered new neighbour to a misbehaving movie star, a surprise birthday party and a very dastardly scheme. Can Alice-Miranda once again put everyone's problems to rights - and even rescue the Queen from a kidnapping?

Old-fashioned Enid Blyton-style jollity abounds in this tongue-in-cheek story with a very determined young heroine. In other hands, the perpetually positive and Pollyanna-esque Alice-Miranda might seem insufferably twee, but Jacqueline Harvey makes this story work by adding a generous hint of knowing humour. An upbeat and lively story that is likely to particularly appeal to girls.