Amelia Fang and the Unicorn Lords

Sparkly vampire Amelia Fang and her friends journey to the Kingdom of the Light from their comfy home in Nocturnia to rescue Tangine’s mum, Queen Fairyweather, who was mysteriously abducted when Tangine was a baby.

It’s quite hard to get there until the gang figure out how to ride the Rainbow Rail, and find themselves in the strange environs of Glitteropolis, where the Unicorn Lords reign supreme. But are the beautiful unicorns really so wonderful? And why are they so intent to get all creatures of the light to move to Glitteropolis and then close down the Rainbow Rail so there’s no way in or out?

Amelia’s best friend Florence (a very unusual breed of yeti) steals the show with her loud cockney accent, and Anderson’s writing is as zany as ever in this second instalment of the Amelia Fang series. The moral of the story – that straight divisions of light and dark aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem – is a thought-provoking one for children, presented completely accessibly and with tons of humour. The book reads well on its own even if children haven’t read the previous story, and if not, doubtless they’ll be racing off to the library to find it after this one. Tons of fun.