Book H00t #39 Triple Ripple

Brigid Lowry has three flavours in her latest book for early teen readers. First, there's the fairytale which forms the backbone of the novel. Glory comes to the castle to work as a maid to Princess Mirabella, but finds her destiny is not as simple as she thinks. Interrupting this narrative are comments made by The Reader and The Writer.

In The Reader section, we meet Nova. She is struggling with friendship problems and some tensions at home. She uses the fairytale book as an escape from her 'real' world. I'm sure this is something most teen readers can identify with.

Then there is The Writer who makes mistakes, struggles with creativity and comes up with sparkly good ideas. I really enjoyed this section with its tension between the pressures to write and the desire to give yourself over to the 'muse' and characters. Having been to a couple of Lowry's creative writing workshops, I could hear her voice clearly.

Younger teenage girls will love this book. Some of them might find the narrative incursions frustrating, others will enjoy the commentary, the overlapping and the decision making that goes into the writing process.

Four hoots out of five.

Until next time, happy tales.

Barking Owl