Sparkling Steps

Magic Kitten #7

by Sue Bentley

Rainbow Magic with whiskers! A wonderful mix of kittens, magic and friendship - perfect for young girls of 6+. Olivia has not been welcomed by the other girls at the prestigious ballet school Yew Lodge, who are jealous of her dancing. Then Olivia discovers loveable blue-grey kitten Flame and suddenly, magically, things start to look up . . .

Genres: Childrens, Magic, Fantasy, Animals, Fiction, Own, Chapter Books

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Sue was born in Northampton where she still lives. For many years she worked for Northamptonshire libraries and remains a passionate supporter of Public Libraries. Sue loves everything about books, the feel of them, their smell. the way they look. And has a habit of matching a bookmark to the cover of each book she's reading. The process of reading, the feel of the book, carrying it around in her shoulder bag, sitting in favourite cafes reading all make for a complete sensory experience.
Browsing bookshops old and new, talking all things bookish with other book lovers, spending time with other writers and meeting with fans of her own books at author events are her favourite things. That and eating good quality dark chocolate, while writing.

Reviews

[Rosa Ramôa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Miau...
O gato morde o dono,por brincadeira:)

[Abby T · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book when I read it I cried that the kitten had to leave emotional books

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as part of a three in one book. But that's not listed here.

Occasional but noticeable grammar and spelling errors.

Each story is just a cookie cutter template with names and appearances changed.
Lion prince being cased by evil uncle, old friendly lion tells him to hide and leave. He leaves to human world disguised as a kitten. Gets found by little girl. Makes little girl promise to tell no one. Little girl is super involved in a stereotypical girly thing (ballet, horse riding, ). Little girl gets into trouble and lion prince/magic kitten magically helps her out. Little girl encounters bullies. Lion prince/magic kitten teaches bullies a lesson. Littke girl self sacrifices to save lion prince/magic kitten. Little girl is sad over the day the lion prince/magic kitten will have to leave. Little girl attends a big event for her particular passion. Evil uncle finds lion prince/magic kitten. Lion prince/magic kitten leaves.

Message
first story: work/practice hard and you will be rewarded. Bullies will not prosper.

Little kids or girls, since this is clearly aimed at girls, need better stories than this.

Two things I will give it is that it's cute and most little girls do indeed like those stereotypical interests

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flame is a young lion disguised as a kitten hiding from his uncle, Ebony. Ebony and his followers are trying to take over the lion kingdom and take the throne from Flame (reminds me of The Lion King).

In this story Flame helps Olivia, a ballerina in training, find friendship, courage and confidence in herself and her dancing. Olivia also has to deal with a "mean" girl that is constantly picking on her.

My son loves these books, he loves anything to do with cats. They have a good moral to the story.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

My home book. Such a really lovely book! All about a kitten of course. Lush book with happy and sad ending.

[Alysha DeShaé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and within the same vein as the other books.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was cute and adorable and there was lots of detail and emotions

[Debbie Petersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 8 year old granddaughter loved this book! She is a dancer and could relate to it!

[Imogen Fremaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kitten was magical and her name was Flame. When sparkle dust comes out of her paws it makes rainbows is amazing!! I love the kitten because she was very cute, lovely and special. When she was at school with Olivia she liked the school because she liked the interesting children. In Sparkle Steps, the flowers didn't need water or sunshine to grow. This is because the village was also magical.

My best bit in whole book was when in Sparkle Steps village the kittens could speak English like humans.

I would like to read the other Magic Kitten books because I really like the way of how they got on with each other and the flowers grew very specially as the dust helped save them from the bad dark kittens.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are by no means perfect, but I do enjoy reading them to Natalie. The premise is a bit odd, but I'm sure not many little girls would say no to harboring a fugitive magic kitten. A couple negatives would be the lack of parents or adults and the brutalness of some of the behavior, which gets a slight mention of consequence. While acceptable traits for YA and mid level books, these are a bit more than I bargained for while reading to a four year old. Particularly liked the dance elements in this one. Our timing was good to, as Natalie's dance recital was only a few weeks away.

[KyoAi ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourites! I just love it! Flame is super adorable in each book, which is why I picked Magic Kitten as my favourite series. In this book, Flame meets Olivia, a tall girl learning to dance like a pro. As usual, Flame has to leave, causing Olivia to get sad. My favourite parts are when Olivia finds Flame and Flame repairs Olivia's costume. The perfect gift to young ballerinas and cat lovers, like me.

[Lena]

Its like i was saying to my last book i read but this time its at a ballet school Flame is a really cute cat in differnt books flame is a differnt color cat one of them Classroom Chaos flame is black in Sparkling Steps flame is gray but the book i am reading flame ia orange so it would be asmow if you people can read all the Magic Kitten books

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note as of 08/28/21

I read a lot of the books in this series as a child and I loved them! I'd say good books for third - fifth graders depending on reading level.

(having gotten a Goodreads account as a child, I added a lot of the books I read back then to my list - I have ultimately decided to keep them on my shelves because I like seeing my reading history)

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 5 year old daughter and me read these books together and she loves them! These our her new favorite chapter books and she can't wait to read the next one! It's magical, funny, and sincere all at the same time! The star raitings on these always come from my daughter! I would be more inclined to give it 3-4 stars.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute story. Good way to start a morning.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of my favourites

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 yr old daughter thought it was cute. It's an easy read for young readers and touches on the bond of child and pet.

[Makayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book but it won't let me read it