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Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child

Ruby Redfort is a thirteen-year-old girl like no other. She is a genius code cracker, a daring detective and a gadget laden special agent. She is an intelligent girl who has been working on being a detective since she was just two. Ruby also has a weird dress sense, a bookcase arranged like a library and a massive number of yellow notebooks.

When an anonymous caller sets Ruby a challenge, it is not long before she finds herself at the headquarters of the most secret of secret agencies, SPECTRUM. Ruby also finds it easy to get into all sorts of tricky situations with evil villains, but always remains cool. And with her trusty butler, Hitch to help her, Ruby is on the case.

Ruby Redfort might already be the favourite hero of another of Lauren Child's creations, Clarice Bean, but for the rest of us she needs a bit of explanation and introduction. This novel introduces readers to a quirky, intelligent and interesting thirteen year old. The story is also told with good humour and is entertaining. It shows readers that sometimes weird is not necessarily a bad thing. While Ruby shows that intelligence is a great tool, and is a character easy to like she is not exactly easy to relate to as she takes weird and nerd to extremes. The result though is a funny and entertaining source of escapism.

RRP $24.99
Published by HarperCollins Publishers

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Slightly Invisible by Lauren Child

Slightly Invisible is the latest picture book to feature Charlie and Lola. It contains a story that anyone with older or younger siblings can relate to. There are times when with friends that you don't want your siblings around.

Charlie and friend Marv are in search of strange and tricky creatures. They would like to search without Charlie's sister Lola bothering and interrupting them. However when they make an invisibility drink to allow them to sneak up on strange and tricky creatures, it is Lola's friend Soren Lorensen that drinks it. Since Soren is the only one who knows how to capture a strange and tricky creature and since Lola is the only one who knows where he is or can hear him, it would seem that Charlie and Marv need her help after all.

Slightly Invisible is a fun and imaginative story for pre-schoolers. It is on a subject that many can relate to and as usual both text arrangement and the pictures help to trigger the imagination of those reading it. There are also some good and unexpected twists.

RRP $19.99
Published by Hachette under the Orchard Books title

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