The golden flower by Eleanor Coombe

cover image

Lothian Children's Books, 2009.The Faraway Series; book 10. ISBN 9780734410511.
(Primary) The glacier is melting and so are the hobyahs. Set on Faraway Island, Ziel the Asrai River Fairy Princess, works her magic and together with the hobyahs turns the hated goblin tunnels into 'giant ice blocks' (p46). Along with the Mistral trees, Astara the Fairy Queen, Blaize, the Singing Fairy, Cedar, Puck and Wattleman, outwit Garton the New King of the Grim Goblins who have mined the Diamond River of its precious jewels and in doing so have polluted the river and restored Asrai's health.
The black and white illustrations emphasise the good and bad characters and some of the names such as Puck, Eden and Wattleman are quite obvious. Text is well spaced and clear appealing to early primary girls who enjoy reading books belonging to a series.
Sue Nosworthy

booktopia