The Wrath of the Woolington Wyrm by Karen Foxlee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
(A few preliminary notes. It’s important for me to tell you that I share a publisher with Foxlee and received this from them as a free copy. This has not impacted upon my thoughts).
I really liked Miss Mary-Kate Martin’s Guide To Monsters. It’s a little bit as if Fungus the Bogeyman made friends with Eloise and then added a sprinkle of Frances Hardinge and a little bit of The Lambton Worm for good measure. And if that’s not a mixture that catches your eye then I don’t know what is. Luckily enough Foxlee delivers – and in spades.
Mary-Kate Martin and her mother are on their way to Woolington Well, a small and deliciously eccentric village. Trust me, you know the type. There’s Meaningful Things happening that nobody wants to talk about and there’s Clearly A Mystery To Be Solved and also a BAD EGG TO GET IN THE WAY. Honestly, bad eggs are the worse. Anyway, because Mary-Kate’s mother, an archaeologist, is busily surveying the site of the intended shopping centre it’s down to Mary-Kate herself to do the honours.
What I particularly enjoyed here was the kindness of Foxlee’s writing. There’s plenty of awesome girls being awesome in children’s literature (and rightfully so!) and Mary-Kate is a lovely addition to that canon. Where she differs, however, is in how she explicitly wrestles with her worries and anxiety in order to do so. She doesn’t believe in herself but keeps going until she does and that’s rather utterly wonderful. It’s also relevant to mention that her mother is supportive and helps her to walk through these moments of catastrophisation and doubt and has a wonderful, endless belief in her. Foxlee handles this all so carefully and so cleanly and I appreciated it endlessly.
I also loved Freda Chiu’s illustrations very much. There is a pony in this book called Pickles who is AMAZING. He is uninterested in everything but eating and scowling and there is one moment (quite near the end of the book) where Chiu draws him and honestly, it is all of my dreams come true.
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Daisy May Johnson 
How delightful, and part of a series too! Foxlee is an author new to me.
She’s very worth discovering!
What a lovely review, I hadn’t heard of this book or author but like the sound of this very much.
I always know it’s a good sign when I’m reading something and don’t quite know where it’s going but know that I’m going to enjoy how it gets there. 🙂 I’ll look forward to hearing your thoughts!