The Sequin Star is an exciting time-slip adventure set amidst the back drop of the Great Depression in the weeks around the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Rosina and Kit are soon quite taken by each other, but Claire wonders whether a rich boy and a circus girl belong together – and what of her grandmother? Claire is stranded in a circus camp, working hard and befriending circus performers Rosina and Jem, as well as a boy called Kit who, Claire realises, is her grandfather as a young man. Intrigued, Claire puts the brooch in her pocket and when she is in an accident soon afterwards, finds herself swept back in time to 1932. It isn’t like her other, expensive jewellery – instead it is a cheap sequin star. When her much loved grandmother is ill in hospital, Claire finds a old brooch among her things. ‘I say, are you all right?’ came the voice again, a bit softer this time. She touched her head with her fingertips. You could get killed.’Ĭlaire tried to open her eyes. ISBN 9780143783671 Author Sally Murphy Posted on SeptemCategories Younger Readers Tags Belinda Murrell, clubs, friendship, groups, island life, islands, moving house, new school, pippa's island, random house, relcoation, school, series The Sequin Star, by Belinda Murrell Pippa’s Island 1: The Beach Shack Cafe, by Belinda Murrell Young readers will love the island setting and will look forward to more installments. Pippa faces the challenges of a new start with the help of her thoughtful, if slightly distracted, mum, and through trial and occasional error. The Beach Shack Cafe is the first title in a new series following Pippa’s new life on Kira Island. Pippa isn’t sure it will work, but when she makes some new friends, things start looking up.

On top of that, they are living in a caravan in her grandparents’ garden while Mum puts everything into renovating a run-down boatshed she wants to make into a cafe bookshop. She has left behind friends she’s known since nursery school in London, and moved across the world to Australia, where everything seems different. Pippa and her family might have moved to an idyllic island town, but that doesn’t make it easy. And of course the biggest difference was that almost everyone was a stranger. But instead of cool and misty air, the sun shone down bright and hot.

If I closed my eyes it sounded just like the playground of my old school back in London. Outside, kids were running, shouting, playing and laughing.

The Locket of Dreams by Belinda Murrell