"Aliens, AI bots and an unforgettable heroine — this Middle Grade debut dances with far-out intergalactic adventure and quirky comedy."
January 2025 Debut of the Month
Fast-paced and outrageously funny, James Davis’ Scarlet debut sees its eponymous heroine embark on a madcap intergalactic adventure that fizzes with energy and visual verve.
After amusing preamble around whether the reader might be “fantasising about bamboo” and “huge and cute and cuddly-looking” (in which case, they’re directed to “put this book down, because you are a panda, and this is not a book for pandas”), nine-year-old Scarlet’s story kicks off with a tap-tap-tap at her window. When she goes to investigate, she’s met by the strange sight of a floating boy. And all this the day after she’d responded to an ad in the Beano for a Defender of the Universe.
Turns out, the floating figure is a boy by the name of Jasper, who’s as “silly as a badger in the fridge”, and the current Defender of the Universe, no less. As his co Defender of the Universe has turned twelve, she’d had to relinquish the role, hence Jasper’s ad for a new comrade. Cue Scarlet stepping into the role and embracing a wacky adventure across the cosmos with Jasper, Pop-Pom the alien, and a super-smart AI robot.
Packed with brain-boggling digressions, Scarlet boasts an amusing narrative voice that feels alive, as if you’re being read to. As such, it’s sure to please readers who demand non-stop entertainment. Mention must also be made of Dotty Sutton’s delightful illustrations, which pepper the story with perfectly-pitched pandemonium.
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