If you are looking for a book that is Pippi Longstocking for the modern age, Two Friends, One Dog, and a Very Unusual Week by Sarah L. Thomson is the book you are looking for. If you like that clueless, tornado of a child character, you will love this early chapter book. Best for ages 8 to 10, it could work as a read aloud as well. The chapters are shorter, with a few, cute, simple illustrations (by Vin Vegel) to highlight plot points, allowing for that age range.
Rani and Emily learn that friendship is an important thing to know the rules for, but what are they exactly? And when one realizes that sometimes the rules are what you make of them, the sky’s the limit. The adventures range from Rani going to school and not understanding why the teachers won’t share the climbing on the wall. Or why there are so many rules. And well, so what if she made a mess at the store? She took the vacuum on display to clean it up and bought the popcorn she spilled. We also see how adults have a lot of rules, talk a lot and should probably bungee jump from the roof of a four story building more often.
Though most kids will like this book, it was not my cup of tea. I would have liked to have seen more compromises between Rani and Emily that made Rani compromise more. I would have liked to have seen Rani be honest and tell which of her stories were just that, stories, and which were real. Overall, I would have liked a middle ground. The extremes of “Prim and Proper” vs. “Hellhound from Hades” needed to meld into a Prim Hellhound.
Though available, read via an online reader copy.