Alice-Miranda shines bright by Jacqueline Harvey

Random House, 2013. ISBN 9781742752907.
Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones is the heroine of another cracker series from Jacqueline Harvey, who seems to know just what it is that primary girls like to read about. She's a boarder at Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies and, in the tradition of all good boarding school stories, there are friends to be made, mysteries to be solved, adventures to be had and people to sort out. In this latest episode, the trend continues. Alice-Miranda and her friends are now in Year 6 and preparing for the big move to high school but there's a problem. Jacinta is really out of sorts, and Reginald Parker disappears. Both are tasks for Alice-Miranda to investigate. And that doesn't include keeping the secret of what they've discovered in the woodlands near the school!
This series began in 2010 with Alice-Miranda at School and since then these have been Alice-Miranda on Holiday, Alice-Miranda at Sea; Alice-Miranda Takes the Lead; Alice-Miranda Shows the Way; Alice-Miranda in New York, and earlier this year, Alice-Miranda in Paris. Each one is an engaging read that has been eagerly awaited by some young ladies I know who would dearly love to live the life! Won't they be thrilled to know that hot on the heels of Alice-Miranda Shines Bright is the Alice-Miranda Diary, a beautifully illustrated tome in which they can not only record their daily doings and secret thoughts, but there is a host of other things to do like quizzes and puzzles, recipes to follow and even filling out the application form to enrol in the Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies. This is one to be adding to your list of recommendations for Christmas gifts which parents value so much.
With her own blog  and soon to have her own website this is a young lady your young ladies will delight in meeting.
Barbara Braxton