Firestorm's Musical Muck-Up

Miniwings #4

by Sally Sutton

Imagine having six gorgeous little winged toy horses that come to life when the adults aren't looking! Firestorm is the hero - or chief troublemaker - in this fourth book in the series. Clara and Sophia are preparing for their performance in the school orchestra, but those sneaky little Miniwings stow away in their instrument cases. Surely, they won't press the fire alarm ...

96 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2018

About the author

Aucklander Sally Sutton has been writing picture books, children's novels and plays for two decades. Her stories are celebrated for being 'busy with joy, and colour, and words that boing off the page' (The Spinoff) - making reading her stories a magical moment between parent and child. Sally has been awarded several Storylines Notable Book Awards for her work, and in 2009 she and illustrator Brian Lovelock won the Picture Book category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for Roadworks. Her 2018 story about a cat's amazing true journey, The Cat from Muzzle (illustrated by Scott Tulloch), was a bestseller.

Reviews

[Bookrapt (Est. 1983)]

The young reader of early chapter books does not need to have read earlier Miniwings books to enjoy this, but if they have read one or more they will know that they are in for a fun time. Each book in the Miniwings series is a stand-alone story involving the same characters, two sisters and the six magical troublesome horses. As Sophie's Top Secret introduction tells us: “When Nana first gave us six colourful little horses with wings, we thought they were just ordinary toys. We called them Miniwings. We thought they were sweet. Plastic. Harmless. Maybe even a little bit boring. WE WERE WRONG.”

In this story, Sophie and Clara are to play with their school orchestra in a concert for parents. Reluctant to go, knowing they haven't practised diligently, their pleas to stay home are ignored by their parents. In their haste to pack, they fail to see that the Miniwings have stowed away in the girls' instrument cases.

Once they girls spot them, they know this spells trouble – it always does! Their attempts to avert the inevitable go horribly wrong – even the fire brigde turns up!

Colourful illustrations by Kirsten Richards add to the build-up of hilarity for the reader. Along with author Sally Sutton, she has created six little creatures with different personalities which shine through and spell TROUBLE.

Reviewed by Chris Wright (Bookrapt)

[Nikky Cassidy]

This seems like a book for older kids with its reference to coffins and muscle men and love matches. Although we read it in 10-15 minutes. It looks cute on the cover but the horses are not really cute because they are always causing trouble, teasing and being silly and using silly words. It has a meaning I suppose that bad days can turn out good. I like the ratio of pictures and words for young readers.

[Mabel Rose]

Sophia and Clara had a music concert, but Sophia broke her violin bow. Firestorm pressed the fire alarm and firefighters came. The concert was still really good.