Dappled Annie and the Tigrish
Mary McCallum
Gecko Press
Pub. 2014

 

July 06, 2021

If you love adventurous children’s fiction you need to read this book.

Written by Mary McCallum and illustrated by Annie Hayward, Dappled Annie and the Tigrish is an interesting book full of adventures and mystery. From talking hedges to a flying tigrish, this book is full of surprises.

Nine year old Annie goes on an adventure looking for Mr and Mrs Hedge who are looking for the nest that was blown away when the tigrish leapt past. Annie goes to a variety of places and has a range of adventures from flying over the land to tramping through the forest. All through her adventures, she has to try to protect her little brother Robbie. Even when the worst things happen she powers through the twists and turns.

In my opinion, Dappled Annie and the Tigrish is a good book, but the start is a bit slow. It’s a bit confusing at the beginning but eventually it’s easy to understand. One of the great things about it is that it teaches you things about the real world while keeping the story as a fantasy.

Sometimes Annie struggles with the pressure that has been put on her but she eventually gets through, saving the day with her intuitive methods. Even with everything she goes through she stays cheerful and bubbly, and she also makes sure she and her brother are back by dinner.

Mary McCallum is an amazing New Zealand author which she shows by using different sentence structure and style. While writing, she uses complicated sentences while making it easy enough for children to understand.

Dappled Annie and the Tigrish enchants the reader. It reminds us that there is magic anywhere we look, as long as we know what to look for. This book makes you believe that magic is real, no matter what they say. When you read this book it changes your whole idea of the mystical world.

Throughout this book there are a lot of twists and turns, good and bad, quirky things you would never think about. Dappled Annie and the Tigrish is a fictional book with some fact, drama, adventure and humour which just add to the story and make it different to other books.

Another thing I enjoyed about this story is that the main character is a girl and she isn’t a teenager or a real tough and tumble person. Annie is just an average girl with a mostly normal life, and the only abnormal thing about her is her adventure and her being dappled.

Overall this is a great book, especially if you like adventurous fiction and have a big imagination. It is a bit tough to read as the first few chapters are a bit complicated and it seems like it should have a prequel to make it make sense.

– Emma Harden is 12 and lives in Christchurch.