Fly is under the control of Black Bill who runs a group of street urchins. Being small, Fly is the perfect chimney sweep. When she sees her chance to escape her life of scraped elbows and knees, hunger and beatings, she doesn’t plan to land inside a tiger’s cage.

This isn’t just any tiger. It knows something about Fly that she doesn’t. When it tastes her with a long lick, it feels something to be true. Fly might be in ragged clothes, barefoot and filthy, but she has come from something much greater. When it tells Fly this she scoffs in her street slang, after never knowing anything else but dirt and hardship.

She vows to free this beautiful creature, and then the menagerie of animals she finds also locked in cages. The magic that allows her to hear the tiger’s words has always been with her. ‘Putting the stares on,’ is what she calls her special gift to make people see something other than the truth. This is how she feeds herself and her street kids ‘family’, and also make the tiger look like a large dog at her side.

But Fly’s plans are scuttled by the man who put the animals in their cages. He knows who Fly really is and of the priceless treasure in her possession. He has his own magic and controls a small, menacing being to keep an eye on her at all times. Can Fly escape their clutches, fulfill her promise to the animals, then get them all home to the island they came from?

Something different to anything I’ve read before! Fly is a resourceful, tough but kind character, aching at the hurt in the caged animal faces and determined to do something about it. The bond between her and the tiger is wonderful, and her interactions with the animals too. This isn’t a ‘fluffy’ tale about animals and urchins, as there are terrible wrongs and lives lost.

Fly and her street ‘family’ talk in a mix of Cockney rhyming and Victorian slang and there is a glossary in the back of the book to help understand these. This language quirk of Fly just adds to the narrative, being often funny and descriptive. Lots of animal action and adventure, ticking clock angst and a sea voyage too. Great read.

Author – Penny Chrimes

Age – 9+

Find Teacher’s Notes here

See another Penny Chrimes Book Review here (Click on the Cover)

(2020, Hachette, Victorian London, Streetkids, Chimney sweep, Poverty, Animals, Magic, Tiger, Royalty, Princess, Greed, Courage, Sea Voyage, Promise, Action, Adventure)