Lily the Littlest Angel 3: Lily Goes Skitter Skating product reviews

Much like her mother, my daughter is an absolute bookworm, it is not surprising to find her sneakily reading in bed at midnight. Now that she is getting older she is enjoying chapter books, so I am always on the lookout for new series for her to immerse herself in. While I was browsing the KIWIreviews site I saw a book from the 'Lily the Littlest Angel' series, which I knew my daughter had already read some of, I requested a copy and waited.

Upon unpacking the review parcel, my daughter was excited and I told her we would read it together. The cover shows Lily lying on her stomach on a sleigh, and the blurb mentions that there is a competition for a snow sports trophy. This book has 109 pages and is #3 in the series by Elizabeth Pulford - who happens to be a local author.

When it was bedtime we sat down to read, throughout the book there are short chapters and some illustrations. We begun reading and were quickly transported to a world of fantasy, as the story progressed it was getting more and more exciting. When Lily forgot her bag to take to sports, we were happy to see how helpful and resourceful the other fairies were to help Lily stay in the competition. While reading we got sidetracked and started talking about how bullying is mean, this conversation started after reading about how mean Wanda Westbrook was to Lily.

The way the author has written the story, it is easy to picture what is happening, my favourite part was the catching snow angels, my daughter liked the part at the end with Lily helping Wanda, and subsequently Lily being praised. Throughout the book I found there were underlying themes such as, kindness, selflessness, teamwork, and helpfulness. I think I enjoyed the story as much as my daughter.

I think this book is ideal for children who are aged around 7 or 8 years of age, the story is engaging and we can't wait to find the next books in the series, to see what other adventures Lily goes on.

Of the three books in the Lily The Littlest Angel series that Miss Seven has read, this was by far her favourite. She was intrigued by the mention of snow as she loves to visit the snowfields in winter, and the onset of colder weather always means that this might be a possibility. The number of different challenges that Lily has to face over the course of the book also interested Miss Seven as she thought they might be fun to try too. Of course, she would need a pair of functional wings - but hey, that is just a detail!

We took turns reading aloud - Miss Seven is quite capable of reading on her own now, with the occasional stop when she meets an unfamiliar word, but she is still at the age when it is nice to listen to someone else reading. Both of us had a temporary break from reading when we reached Chapter Five. The chapter name is a real tongue twister and neither of us could manage to repeat it without getting tangled. "Silk Sacking Snow Angels" is really difficult to say accurately, even when you speak slowly. Saying it faster is impossible! Eventually Miss Seven managed it although she cheated by stopping after each word! There was lots of laughter, and we persuaded her mother and brother to try it as well.

In this book, Lily meets a new adversary - Wanda Westbrook. How Lily learns to deal with this challenge is the main theme of this book; this is a problem that is a perennial for children as they work out how to interact with others, and it is empowering for them to read about how other youngsters deal with friendship issues. In the end her commitment to the Angels' philosophies guides her choices. Miss Seven was impressed by that and her comment was that it helped her to make a difficult decision - a nice learning opportunity.

Arising from the friendship theme is the secondary idea of belief in oneself. Lily lacks the ability to acknowledge just how much talent she has. Her reaction when everyone praises her for her attitude and generosity is one of amazement; she had never realised just how much people thought of her. All through the story she had never dared to think she would do well, but others believed in her and were willing to take a chance. The strength she derives from that confidence is an important lesson for children: that you can do anything if you set your mind to it.

Miss Seven cannot wait for the next book in the series. She has read the first two books several times over, and undoubtedly will be reading about Lily's skitter skating adventures over and over as well. There a few better ways to pass the time!