Enchanted Mist

Star Friends #10

by Linda Chapman, Kim Barnes (Illustrator)

In this newest installment of the Star Friends series, Mia, Lexi, Violet, and Sita are excited to take a camping trip at the end of the school year. But when strange things start happening, the Star Friends know they need to investigate! With black-and-white illustrations throughout.

The school year is ending, and Mia, Lexi, Violet, and Sita are excited to take an end-of-the-year camping trip. Everyone has had a great year except for a new girl named Maddie. She hasn’t made any friends yet and wishes she were popular. But then suddenly, everyone wants to be her friend. The Star Friends suspect that magic is at play—and could Maddie be behind it all? With black-and-white illustrations throughout.

In the Star Friends chapter book series, Mia and her friends Lexi, Sita, and Violet all discover that they are Star Friends -- they can communicate with the animals that have traveled from the Star World. The animals show the girls how to use their unique magic abilities to do good. A whole world of magical adventures awaits!

Genres: Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2023

About the author

Linda Chapman was born in Liverpool in 1969. She had many different jobs before becoming a full-time writer in 1999 including working as a theatre stage manager, a dog trainer, a bookseller, a nanny, a teacher and a research assistant. She has written over 300 books for children, some under her own name, others under different names and she often collaborates with other authors. She is currently writing books with Julie Sykes and they are co-authors on the NYT bestselling Unicorn Academy series as well as Mermaid Academy, Forever Homes and Pocket Unicorns. Linda lives in Leicestershire with her husband, three children, two horses and three dogs. She has written many different series including: My Secret Unicorn, Star Friends, Best Friends Bakery, Stardust, Skating School and, most recently, Magic Keepers and Moonlight Riders.

Reviews

[Olivia]

See my full review here: https://www.yabookscentral.com/enchan...

ENCHANTED MIST is a charming chapter book about friendship, magic, and a desire to fit in. The tenth book in a series, this story begins with some processing of the previous book as well as a recap of the important information. Four girls have special animal companions making them Star Friends and magical powers called Star Magic that gives them each a special magical ability.

Told from Mia's point-of-view, the girls have learned that there is a Star Friend in the area with a Star Otter. They want to friend this person and help them to learn about Star Magic, but they are not sure who it is. A new girl in school seems like she could be the Star Friend, but they are having trouble feeling her out. Even Mia's magical glimpses and dreams do not show her who this person is.

When strange things begin happening around the new student, Maddie, the girls decide they need to investigate further to see if she could be the Star Friend and help with any magical origins to the strange happenings.

What I loved: This is such an interesting premise that combines magic with being a kid and worrying about friendships, school, and doing the right thing. As a new student, Maddie is having trouble fitting in - or, so it seemed, until she became the most popular girl in school. What she and they will learn is that there is also a downside to this popularity. The girls will need to use a lot of problem-solving, and a bit of magic, to figure out what is going on.

Friendship is a big theme here, not only in between the girls and their animals, but also about its importance in the school community and for others to feel like they fit in. Maddie has been struggling with making friends, and this is what leads to the strange happenings later. These are themes that will resonate with young readers and give a story that they can connect with. The mystery of who the Star Friend is and what is happening also keeps the book moving and readers hooked.

This is an advanced chapter book with long chapters, small illustrations every few page spreads, and more complex sentence structure. This will work best for confident independent readers with themes that will connect with kids who are nearly ready for middle grade - but not quite fully there yet. The illustrations are great, really capturing the characters and action of the story throughout.

What left me wanting more: The book includes a lot of details and descriptions that can make it feel a bit slow, particularly at first and among fans who have followed the stories. That being said, the mystery begins a little around halfway and makes the rest of the story move quickly.

Final verdict: ENCHANTED MIST is an exciting new installment in the Star Friends series for advanced chapter book readers. Powerful themes around friendship and belonging will make this a story that elementary school aged readers can connect with.

Please note that I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Erietta · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's too boring
I don't think the 5 last books are worth reading sorry

[Efox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last of the new Star Friends books we got for Christmas and it picked up where the last book left off. This one was also a little less great than the previous ones, again I'm not sure if it was just a less compelling story, or if the miss-direction was too much, or that it was more of the same - trying to do good, ending up doing bad, but my youngest even declared this story line "boring" at one point.

Don't get me wrong, we'll still get the next few Star Friends books, because they absolutely love these stories. I think they, like Mia, were hoping for a new star friend, (sadly didn't happen in the way they wanted. Their teacher and not another fun girl or boy to join their friend group! What a bummer.), and were a little disappointed with how this one wrapped up. Still fun, still enjoying this series, even if this particular story arch wasn't as amazing for us.

[Cute Rabbit · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning of the book Maia wakes ap after having a dream.She uses her magic to see if there will be anything to come for the girls.She sees the raccoon from her last adventure but this time with a shadow with who might have put it there.Maia heads to school & meets the new girl on her way.She invites maddie(the new girl) to work with Ionie and Maia in class.They have a class with there new teacher miss Amandi on how to make perfume.They have fun together making them.Then they practice for sports day & Maddie is alone.Miss Amani says that paddies perfume is actually the best perfume.
Everyone starts to want to hang out with laddie and the friends soon realise this is the work of magic.they find that the magic that is making them like maddie is in the perfume they made in class and the girls work together to get it off maddie.After they realise that it was miss Amadi that put the magic in the potion and find her in the clearing.They also find that she is a star friend who doesn’t know much about how to use the magic.✨