Thank you to Zephyr Books for this review copy!
Circus Maximus: Rivals on the Track is a fantastic story full of bold characters that will stick with you long after reading. Dido and her beloved horse Porcellus are on the run. The insane emperor Caligula has put a bounty on her head, as well as Porcellus'. It's up to Dido and Porcellus to outrun and outsmart the bounty hunters. Along the way she must cope with a huge family secret that could put her even further in danger. I love this series, it combines, mystery, thrills, adventure and epic action that keeps rolling on page after page. I recommend it for ages 9+ Recently, Annelise was asked about her five favourite female characters in children's books, here is her response: My Favourite Female Characters in Children’s Fiction The seed for the Circus Maximus series was planted when an image of my main character, Dido, popped into my head while I was watching a Formula One race on television. There was never any story without her. Growing up, I loved books and films centred on quirky, brave and clever female characters who found growing up as difficult and awkward as I did. Dido’s closest literary cousin is probably Velvet Brown from Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet. But there are others here with whom I think she would have made friends. Velvet Brown in National Velvet by Enid Bagnold I’ve made no secret of the fact that National Velvet was one of my main inspirations for the Circus Maximus series. It’s the story of a girl who wins a horse in a raffle and dreams of training and entering him for the Grand National, where female jockeys aren’t allowed to compete. Part of what I love about the book is the relationship between idealistic, brace-wearing Velvet and her stoic mother Araminty, who lends Velvet the entry money for the National from the winnings she earned as one of the first women to swim the English Channel. A gorgeous story about the power of ordinary women and girls to do great things. Anne Shirley in the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery Anne (with an ‘e’ as she would be quick to remind you) is a passionate and eccentric eleven- year-old orphan who is adopted by Matthew and Marilla, a childless pair of siblings living in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. Over the course of six books, we see Anne dealing with what she perceives as the curse of her red hair, finding lifelong friends, getting into scrapes, negotiating a long love-hate relationship with her schoolfriend Gilbert Blythe and eventually going to college and beginning her adult life. This series captured my heart when I was growing up and I still re-read my very dog-eared copies. Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy I loved this series when I was young, partly for the brilliant set-up (a boarding school for witches) but also because of Mildred herself, the worst witch of the title. There was something so comforting in reading about a character who despite her best intentions, cannot help getting things wrong. Her struggles against her bullying nemesis Ethel Hallow and the imperious Miss Hardbroom are relatable and funny. You just root for her all the way. Dinah Glass in The Demon Headmaster series by Gillian Cross When we meet Dinah Glass in the first book of Gillian Cross’s series, we see her holding out a ‘cold, rigid hand’, to her new foster family. Fiercely intelligent but private with her emotions, Dinah finds herself isolated at her strange new school but soon realises that her classmates are under the mind control of the sinister Demon Headmaster of the title. Only Dinah is smart enough to outwit him. I felt a strong affinity with Dinah, who like me, found it hard to open up and let people in, but found great friends in the end. Rebecca Mason in the Trebizon series by Anne Digby Rebecca Mason is a shy loner when we meet her in the first book of these terrific boarding school stories and that – plus the fact that she is a keen writer - made me empathise with her immediately. Eventually, over the course of the series, Rebecca makes friends and discovers she has a talent for tennis, which was also my favourite sport at school. Anne Digby is brilliant at writing sporting set pieces and I still remember vividly the excitement of Rebecca’s big match against her friend and rival Joss Vining. When I spotted last year that Anne Digby was following me on Twitter, I have to admit I let out a blood-curdling howl of excited disbelief and had to message her immediately to tell her how much her books inspired me.
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