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Star Friends #11
Dream Shield
In the 11th installment of the Star Friends series, Mia, Lexi, Sita, and Violet suspect dark magic when everyone in town suddenly becomes lazy. But how can the girls stop it when they're being affected, too?
Westport is hosting a scarecrow competition, and the Star Friends are so excited to be taking part. But suddenly, everyone in the town becomes extremely lazy. The girls suspect that there might be dark magic at work, but how can they stop it when they’re being affected, too? 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!
Westport is hosting a scarecrow competition, and the Star Friends are so excited to be taking part. But suddenly, everyone in the town becomes extremely lazy. The girls suspect that there might be dark magic at work, but how can they stop it when they’re being affected, too? 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!
- GenresFantasy
156 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 4, 2024
8 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Linda Chapman
734 books201 followersLinda 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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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August 25, 2024See my full review here: https://www.yabookscentral.com/dream-...
DREAM SHIELD is an engaging new installment in the STAR FRIENDS series. Sita, Mia, Lexi, and Violet are back together with the town upset about a new development of extremely expensive mansions planned to be built on the top of the cliff. If it is built, a lot of greenery will be taken away including the forest where they practice their magic. At the same time, the town has a small festival called a garden walkabout with a scarecrow competition that everyone is preparing for.
After the walkabout, the whole town seems to be incredibly fatigued, unable to stay awake. Mia is having dreams about something dark, and the animals are scenting Shades. Will the girls be able to figure out who is using dark magic and how to stop it before the whole town sleeps?
What I loved: This was a really engaging story that kept the reader guessing. There are a few possibilities for what the magic could have been, so there is a pretty good mystery going throughout the story. The writing works well for independent readers who are gaining confidence. Sentences remain relatively simple but include complex words and a larger font type that will work well for readers who are getting further into chapter books.
The characters are great, focusing on the four friends, though there are plenty of recurring side characters (such as Miss Amadi and Maddie) that readers will love hearing from again. The girls are great friends - but they are also children and learning as well. Lessons about patience, knowing your weaknesses, accepting help, and resolving disagreements will resonate with this age group.
Along those lines, illustrations are included throughout the book albeit not on every page spread. The illustrations are fantastic with plenty of detail and expressive characters to help those scenes really come to life.
What left me wanting more: The beginning third to first half felt like a lot of detail on seeming filler with not a lot happening before the story got into the mystery. The writing can get a bit bogged down in the details as well in various places with text that sometimes feels a lot like filler. Additionally, the story ends not full resolved. While they do resolve the plot with the Shades, there is still the larger mystery of who did the dark magic and why that remains to be seen.
Of note, this may not work well for sensitive readers, as the scarecrows are attacking the girls, and it makes for quite the frightening imagery - especially with some serious injuries that occur. This one could result in bad dreams if read close to bedtime - it is quite scary!
Final verdict: DREAM SHIELD is an engaging early chapter book with a solid mystery, plenty of magic, and good friends that will work well with children who are gaining confidence in independent chapter books.
Please note that I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.
DREAM SHIELD is an engaging new installment in the STAR FRIENDS series. Sita, Mia, Lexi, and Violet are back together with the town upset about a new development of extremely expensive mansions planned to be built on the top of the cliff. If it is built, a lot of greenery will be taken away including the forest where they practice their magic. At the same time, the town has a small festival called a garden walkabout with a scarecrow competition that everyone is preparing for.
After the walkabout, the whole town seems to be incredibly fatigued, unable to stay awake. Mia is having dreams about something dark, and the animals are scenting Shades. Will the girls be able to figure out who is using dark magic and how to stop it before the whole town sleeps?
What I loved: This was a really engaging story that kept the reader guessing. There are a few possibilities for what the magic could have been, so there is a pretty good mystery going throughout the story. The writing works well for independent readers who are gaining confidence. Sentences remain relatively simple but include complex words and a larger font type that will work well for readers who are getting further into chapter books.
The characters are great, focusing on the four friends, though there are plenty of recurring side characters (such as Miss Amadi and Maddie) that readers will love hearing from again. The girls are great friends - but they are also children and learning as well. Lessons about patience, knowing your weaknesses, accepting help, and resolving disagreements will resonate with this age group.
Along those lines, illustrations are included throughout the book albeit not on every page spread. The illustrations are fantastic with plenty of detail and expressive characters to help those scenes really come to life.
What left me wanting more: The beginning third to first half felt like a lot of detail on seeming filler with not a lot happening before the story got into the mystery. The writing can get a bit bogged down in the details as well in various places with text that sometimes feels a lot like filler. Additionally, the story ends not full resolved. While they do resolve the plot with the Shades, there is still the larger mystery of who did the dark magic and why that remains to be seen.
Of note, this may not work well for sensitive readers, as the scarecrows are attacking the girls, and it makes for quite the frightening imagery - especially with some serious injuries that occur. This one could result in bad dreams if read close to bedtime - it is quite scary!
Final verdict: DREAM SHIELD is an engaging early chapter book with a solid mystery, plenty of magic, and good friends that will work well with children who are gaining confidence in independent chapter books.
Please note that I received an ARC. All opinions are my own.
August 3, 2025
After the last two Star Friends books, I wasn't so sure I would like where Linda Chapman was taking the characters this time, but we've been re-reading them all for summer reading and I thought I should just get the next two and see if we enjoyed them. My kids love them all and I have to say, I enjoyed these two much more than I was expecting.
This book welcomes back some old characters from previous books including Desmond Hannigan from Hidden Charm and Aunt Carol, who I don't think we've seen since Dark Tricks. The town is trying to organize to stop a new development by Mr. Hannigan but suddenly everyone is tired and sleepy. There are new shades, some different conflict, and of course the end result is that they save the day. A little repetitive on the stories at this point - sure, but still a fun series.
This book welcomes back some old characters from previous books including Desmond Hannigan from Hidden Charm and Aunt Carol, who I don't think we've seen since Dark Tricks. The town is trying to organize to stop a new development by Mr. Hannigan but suddenly everyone is tired and sleepy. There are new shades, some different conflict, and of course the end result is that they save the day. A little repetitive on the stories at this point - sure, but still a fun series.
April 20, 2024
I don't have anything to say
The books are too repetitive here and I've got bored of reading so many times the same thing
The books are too repetitive here and I've got bored of reading so many times the same thing
September 11, 2024
Much of the same and repetetive.
October 11, 2025
The book dream shield begins with Maia making a scarecrow with Ionie for the scarecrow competition.they go to the meeting to see what’s happening about the clearing which might be replaced by houses.Maia sees Sam hanningan son who she thinks is spying.The friends go to the clearing to practice magic.Ionie doesn’t want to try doing a magic shield.as she isn’ good at it.Maia uses her magic and sees that dark magic is going to come to westcombe.They soon realise everyone is getting tired to do things and they realise that it is dark magic.maia has dreams with what might be causing everyone to be so lazy.the friends try to figure out where the shades are and how to find out who the person doing dark magic is.The shades are in the scarecrows!The girls try to work together but Ionie is not with them as she got annoyed with Maia insisting her to try and do a magic shield.Sita gets injured but is saved by miss amandi who has the magic to heal.But Ionie comes to the rescue and saves the friends from the evil scarecrows who were ganging up on lottie and Maia (Sita has passed out due to being hit by a pot on the head) and they are able to save westcombe again!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews