Penelope's Protest

An adventure yarn about a girl with a damaged magic pendant which responds to her wishes in unpredictable ways. When Penny is called upon to help her energetically green mother in a protest against the destruction of a local nature reserve, she discovers the hiding place of a couple of rather stereotypical diamond thieves. Her use of the pendant in an attempt to extricate herself from the resulting toils leads to a splendid climax in which a horde of excavator machines turn on both the thieves and the perpetrators of the development project. A brisk, suspenseful fantasy which should appeal to newly fluent readers.