The Blurb On The Back:

Isadora Moon is special because she is different.

Her mum is a fairy and her dad is a vampire and she is a bit of both.

Isadora is learning all about space at school.  Then one night she follows a shooting star that falls from the sky and discovers a new twinkling friend.  Her name is Nova, and she wasn’t supposed to fall to Earth.  What’s worse, her moon kitten Pluto is lost!

Can Isadora help Nova find the lost kitten before she has to fly back home?

ISADORA MOON AND THE SHOOTING STAR was released in the United Kingdom on 7th October 2021.  Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

You can order ISADORA MOON AND THE SHOOTING STAR by Harriet Muncaster from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers):

Isadora Moon is feeling a little bit panicked.  Her teacher, Miss Cherry, is going to teach the class all about the night sky and has invited the famous astronomer Astrid Luna to come and speak to them.  More importantly, though, she wants everyone to make something creative that’s connected to space by the end of the week but Isadora doesn’t know what to make and she certainly doesn’t want to copy what her friends are making!

Fortunately Isadora’s vampire dad absolutely loves astronomy (mainly because he has no problems with staying awake all night) and is very happy to help her.  He invites her to stay up late and stargaze with him and when they see two shooting stars fall to the opposite side of town.  Excited, they go and look for them and find Nova, a Glow Sprite from the planet Glistopia who is looking for her moon kitten Pluto, who got too close to Earth while they were out playing.

Glow Sprites are frightened of humans so Isadora and her family have to help her hide her identity while trying to locate Pluto but they have to do so within the next 24 hours because Nova’s mum will be back from work by then and Nova doesn’t want her to know that she was out playing.  Can Isadora help her new friend and come up with a project for school?

The 14th in Harriet Muncaster’s self-illustrated fantasy series for children aged 6+ sees half-fairy, half-vampire Isadora have a cute out-of-this-world encounter with an alien.  I liked the relationship between Isadora and her dad (particularly her dad’s attitude to camping) and Luna’s nervousness around humans plus there are some fun activities for children to do when they’ve finished reading.

I have read a couple of the preceding books in this series and I think they’re great for girls who like pink and glittery but also like more dark and gothic stuff as well.  It’s breezy and cute and Isadora’s first person voice makes it very easy to relate to her and her problems – in this case, her concern about coming up with a good project for school that doesn’t just copy what her friends are doing.  This book sees her doing more on the vampire side of her heritage, which I have to say I enjoy because I like the relationship between her and her father, who we find out here is really into astronomy and I hand on heart empathised with his desire to not have to go camping.

One of the nicest things about Isadora is her kindness and it’s genuinely warming that she’s friendly to Luna when she first meets her and curious rather than frightened.  In fact, I thought Muncaster was clever in showing that it’s Luna who’s heard bad things about humans and is therefore quite anxious about being around them.  I particularly enjoyed the scene where she accompanies Isadora to school and meets her friends, who all ask the type of questions you would absolutely expect younger children to ask.

As with the previous books there are a mix of activities for children to do at the end of the book, which I think is a great idea because the activities all tie back to the story and mean that readers get something more from it. 

All in all, I think this is a really lovely series that’s perfect for younger readers and I would definitely read more of it.