Other than Louie herself, I really loved all of the secondary characters in this book. Jasper, Mr. Chipchase, Pip, Louie's best friend, Ned ... even Kitty, Louie's arch-nemesis was a really entertaining addition to the story. But for me, it was Louie and Gabriel, a performer from another circus who comes to audition for the role of showstopper that really took the limelight for me. I loved how we are able to see Louie's courage next to Gabriel's nervousness and stage fright and how we slowly discover how Gabriel came to feeling this way.

Coffee house Caffè Nero has announced the 16-strong shortlist for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, recognising the outstanding books of the past 12...

It took me a while to warm up to the main character, thirteen - year - old - Louie, but she grew on me and I enjoyed reading the story from her narrative. Certain aspects of her personality, such as her bravery and her attitude, reminded be of Jacqueline Wilson's Tracy Beaker, who I liked reading about when I was younger. I really enjoyed reading about Louie's friendship with Gabriel. I thought that it was sweet and true.

Placing Louie in an historical setting allows the author to create truly life threatening situations for our heroine resulting in this being an exciting and at times very tense read. Especially for those people such as me who are afraid of heights! This is an engrossing and enjoyable book partly due to the story being so well plotted but also because it provides an emotional involvement through the insight into Louie’s own personal life problems and issues. Louie is an appealing character because although she clearly has failings her determination and her thoughtfulness make her someone the reader cares about. Despite her exotic and very different lifestyle her inner resolve and drive to succeed has parallels with today’s popular culture of seeking fame and the idea of wanting to be a star is probably one that will be familiar to young readers. The additional characters are interesting too. The different people working at the circus including Mr Chipchase, Jasper, Louie’s friend Ned and of course Mr. Wellbeloved, are all believable characters and add enjoyment to the story.Summary: An engrossing and exciting historical story about Louie, a young girl who dreams of becoming a circus 'Showstopper'. Highly recommended for lovers of adventure stories, with a determined and likeable heroine. Our work today is below. Print out the worksheet and cut out all the squares on the right hand side of the sheet. Match each state – solid, liquid or gas – to a material and to its correct particle arrangement. However one of the highlights of this entertaining book is the growing friendship between Louie and Gabriel, the new arrival at the circus. This relationship is portrayed extremely well and provides some genuinely moving moments. Also Louie’s sadness at never having known her mother and her hope of one day discovering more about her past causes the reader to become more involved in the story. I am reluctant to give away too much of the plot as I think that this would spoil the excitement but suffice it to say I was gripped to the end wanting to know what happened. Emma Carroll manages to bring the various strands together in a very satisfying conclusion. I discovered Emma Carroll through my love of the Victorian era. Even though her books are aimed at children aged 9-11 years I couldn't resist the allure of her first book, a victorian ghost story called Frost Hollow Hall. This became one of my favourite books. Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-rc1-12-g88b4 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9400 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000491 Openlibrary_edition