The Girl with her Head in the Clouds: The Amazing Life of Dolly Shepherd

Dolly was always a daredevil and was offered the chance to have a gun shot at an egg on her head at a show at Alexandra Palace, Ally Pally as it was known.  This leads to an offer to take part in parachute jumps from a hot air balloon and Dolly loved a challenge!  This is an extraordinary story of a girl who seemingly had no fear and her amazing career.

The story reads like something completely made up it is so extraordinary  The experienced hands of Karen McCombie propel the reader along from one jump to another covering the incident when Dolly’s friend went up with her and the parachute failed so they jumped together thanks to her quick thinking, until the final jump when Dolly knew it was time to move on.

The illustrations by Anneli Bray are rather cartoonish and do make this story seem for the young whereas many girls of up to 10, or less able readers would enjoy her life.   It would have been nice to see maybe a photograph of Dolly.  She was quite a girl!