A heartwarming story about a girl who is no longer afraid to follow her dreams, and the family who help make them happen.
India
Wimple can spell with the best of them. How else would she have won the
Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee and garnered an invitation to the
Most Marvelous International Spelling Bee? India couldn't be more
thrilled to travel to London along with the rest of the Wimples. And at
first, it seems like a dream come true; she reunites with her spelling
bee friends, and they even get to meet the Queen!
But there is
skulduggery afoot, with some rather mysterious goings-on going on and a
series of accidents that seem to be not-so-accidental after all. India
has her suspicions about who is behind the duplicitous demonstrations.
But can she solve the mystery in time to save the competition?
The irrepressible Wimple family
returns.
India Wimple, Australia’s champion
speller, has returned home from her victory at the Stupendously Spectacular
Spelling Bee in Sydney. Now that the mayor has awarded her the Yungabilla
Medallion and giant plastic zucchini in commemoration of her feat, she just wants
to get back to her quiet life. But then a letter arrives: an invitation to the
Most Marvelous International Spelling Bee! Soon, the Wimples are off to London,
where a mystery arises when a saboteur strikes. India is on the case, joined
once again by her sweet and kooky family and pals Rajish and Summer, Australia’s
other two top spellers. New competitors-turned-friends include bullied English boy
Peter and a neglected Canadian girl named Holly, both of whom are looking for
acceptance. Absurd humor abounds: When the contestants
and their parents meet the queen, Holly’s fitness-guru parents try to sell her
their Beaut Butts and Guts exercise program; the Wimples can’t understand why
no-nonsense Nanna Flo keeps giggling (she’s smitten with Peter’s grandfather);
and the bee’s special guest is the only three-time world champion, a grown man
resembling Liberace. Combine this with Bitskoff’s spot cartoons and lots
of vocabulary that will be new to many young readers, and much merriment and
edification mark this story of bravery, friendship, and logophilia. The cast is
primarily white or assumed white; Indian-Australian Rajish and his family are
notable exceptions.
Another round of laughs. (Fiction.
7-11)
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