Harper Collins Australia
March 2024
- ISBN: 9780733343117
- ISBN 10: 0733343112
- Imprint: ABC Books AU
- RRP: $16.99

To be honest, Katrina’s books sell themselves, they really don’t need any help from me. In particular, her series like this one which have engaged readers from the outset.
Take a horse-drawn ‘bookshop’, a somewhat eccentric bookseller father, an excitable [and possibly neuro-divergent] little brother (of course, that might just be little brothers in general), a trio of somewhat odd pets and one fairly level-headed and big-hearted girl called Mim, and set them down in the middle of a problem that needs a solution.
Daisy the Clydesdale pulls the caravan/bookshop all around the world and stops where she thinks it should be. And in this new adventure, that’s Venice, “The Floating City”, where a family rivalry to equal that of the Montagues and Capulets tests out Mim’s knack of restoring equilibrium all round.
The Magnificos and the Fortes are not bad people, but long-held and long-forgotten slights have led to a hostility that borders on warfare. Mim and Nat soon discover that even their new friends Pippa and Maria, are on ‘opposite’ sides.
It will take a lot of catastrophes – including Mim hurting her ankle when she’s accidentally in the middle of a scuffle plus exactly the right book to sort this generations-old feud out for once and all.
Another delightful episode full of charm and kindness, this will have young readers excited all over again – and,of course, wishing they too could travel in a marvellous, magical caravan. A big 5 ๐๐๐๐๐ recommendation for this one – where will Mim and family find themselves next I wonder?




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