Star Sisters and the Royal Wedding

Introducing two girls who are whisked off to London to serve as flower girls at the “wedding of the century,” this first title in a chapter-book series has ready-made appeal to kids who like their fiction frilly. Blecher’s contrived references (the girls land at Luckingham Palace, the wedding is at Eastminster Abbey, and the engaged are Prince Wells and his commoner bride, Caroline) will either prompt eye rolls or giggles, depending on readers’ temperaments. It all begins when Coco and Lucy, both new to town and friendless, wander into a forest. There a tiny woman who has been trapped in a tree trunk identifies their identical star-shaped necklaces as ones that once transported long-ago sister princesses to mysterious locales to fulfill a mission of “spreading kindness.” Coco and Lucy now have inherited that responsibility, and they set out to mend the rift between Caroline and her maid-of-honor sister, Poppy. Zimanski’s sweet-natured half-tone illustrations help bolster the earnest goodwill of the protagonists. Two subsequent titles, Star Sisters and the Big Show and Star Sisters and the Great Skate, are also available. Ages 5–8. (BookLife)