Thora

Thora is a thoroughly modern heroine in a fantasy adventure story with a pleasantly old-fashioned feel to it. Half-human, half-mermaid, she must live between the worlds for the first ten years of her life. Fortuitously, Thora and her lovely mermaid mother Halla meet Mr Walters, who hits on the idea of turning Halla into an open water swimming champion. This in itself is so much fun that we don’t even hear Thora’s voice until chapter 15, though from then on the book is entirely hers.

Age ten, Thora is thoroughly independent and confident, with a strong sense of fair play and an highly original approach to language. A real credit to home education (Mr Walters’ and his library), she is perfectly able to deal with the obligatory baddie and the other misguided adults making life miserable for her friends and new-found family. Gillian Johnson’s own illustrations add to the book’s charm.