Title:  The Hidden Star

Author: K. Sello Duiker

Publisher: Cassava Republic Press              

Number of pages: 210        

Type of Book: Fiction, Fantasy

Age: 9 and up

Available here: http://www.cassavarepublic.biz/collections/childrens-books/products/the-hidden-star

Price: N800

MY SUMMARY (without the ending):

Nolitye is a poor, unassuming South African girl who pursues her love of Maths in school and her hobby of collecting stones everywhere else. One day, Nolitye picks up the stone she has been waiting for all her life. This special stone, a magic stone, leads her on a journey that opens her eyes to things the people around her can’t see, like the white dove on Mamani’s head, the brown and green snake that MaMtonga wears on her neck like a necklace and Nomakhosi, the floating fairy-like ancestral spirit.

Nolitye and her friends, Bheki and Four Eyes, must find the remaining four parts of the magic stone before MaMtonga, the Zim, Ncitjana, the Mean One, and all their cronies, to save her parents and make the world bright again.

THUMBS UP AND DOWN

UP: The characters! The Zim: the giant man-eating monster; Bheki: the timid and overweight foodie; The Spoilers: the bullying foursome led by Rotten Nellie; Ntate Matthews: the smart drunk; Nomakhosi: the fairy-like time-stopper/people-freezer with amazing costumes; MaMtonga, the witch; Mandla: the ever-complaining donkey. I may have loved the setting even more than the characters. KSD creates a magical world that sucks you into it and doesn’t let you go till you’ve read the last word on page 210.

DOWN: It was a bit too descriptive; especially in the beginning and this made it drag but that didn’t stop me from reading!

RATING

5 stars

TRIVIA

1. The giant of a hairy man with teeth as sharp as small razors and a nail as long as a man’s arm and curved like a sickle-blade: The Zim.
2. She has pointy ears and clear green eyes; she makes time stop and everyone freeze whenever she visits Nolitye and she guides her in the search for the four stones: Nomakhosi
3. Rex’s pack of talking dogs and the ever complaining donkey: Ticks, Whiskers and Shorty; Donkey: Mandla
4. She led the gang of bullies called the Spoilers and she gave Nolitye the last stone: Rotten Nellie
5. She is bald with only one tooth, a big pimple on her nose and she wears a green and brown snake on her neck like a necklace: MaMtonga.
6. She sent Nolitye’s real parents to the underworld: Sylvia called Thembi

 Read an excerpt here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0103/7312/files/Excerpt_from_website_Pages_from_HIDDEN_STAR_TEXT.pdf?3620

Next Book of the Week (03/June/2015 – 10/June/2015):

GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens