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The Queen's NoseDick King-Smith
The Queen's Nose
by Dick King-Smith
Harmony is given a fifty pence piece that grants seven wishes, and works out far too late how carefully they need wording.
A story about children and families, funny and warm in tone. We would put it with children of 8–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
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Our take on this book
Harmony, who longs for a pet and gets nothing but a fifty-pence piece from her uncle, discovers the coin grants seven wishes — and spends the book learning, the hard and hilarious way, how precisely a wish needs to be worded to avoid disaster. Dick King-Smith, the author of The Sheep-Pig, has enormous fun with the old be-careful-what-you-wish-for idea, and the pleasure is watching Harmony squander and mangle her wishes before working out what she actually wants. It is warm and funny with no peril to speak of, and the family around Harmony is drawn with King-Smith's usual affectionate eye. For an eight- to eleven-year-old it is a satisfying, gently moral read — clever enough to make a child think about what they would wish for, and wise enough to suggest the answer is rarely what you would expect. A comfortable, rewarding standalone from a master of the form.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
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Harry's MadDick King-Smith
Or let them write their own.
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