Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

By Anna Branford and Elanna Allen

Violet is back with a little bit of helpfulness and a whole lot of heart in this third book of the effervescent Violet Mackerel series.

Violet is the smallest in her family, and has a special affinity for Small Things everywhere. So when she finds a tiny ladybug in the garden, she expects she knows how it feels. It probably has to go to bed before all the others, and whenever it finds out something interesting (like that your ears keep growing all your life even when you are old), the bigger ladybugs probably say they already knew.

Violet wants to help the ladybug, so she names her Small Gloria, puts her in a jar, and feeds her cheese toast. And then Violet wakes up to a horrible surprise. But thankfully, even as Violet learns a hard lesson about natural habitats, she realizes how nice it is to share her own habitat with a big sister.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Release date: May 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781442435964

Anna Branford

Anna Branford was born on the Isle of Man and spent parts of her childhood in Africa and in Papua New Guinea. Now she lives in Melbourne, Australia, with a large black cat called Florence. She writes, drinks cups of tea in her garden, and makes dolls and other small things, which she sells at early morning markets. Anna is the author of the Violet Mackerel series. Visit her at AnnaBranford.com.

Book preview

chapter

Violet Mackerel is a seven-year-old girl who is at the shopping center with her mama.

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They have been there all afternoon, buying violin strings for Violet’s eleven-year-old brother, Dylan, and an Encyclopedia of Natural Science for her thirteen-year-old sister, Nicola, who is doing a special display for a school science fair. They have not been buying anything for Violet, unless you count gray school socks. Violet does not count gray school socks.

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And now Mama has bumped into Mrs. Lin from across the road and they are having an extremely long cup of tea in the food court.

With petrol prices as they are, says Mama to Mrs. Lin, it’s getting difficult to make ends meet.

I know, says Mrs. Lin to Mama. My bills are going through the roof.

No one says anything to Violet, so she thinks about Mrs. Lin’s bills going through the roof. The roof of the food court is quite high up. Past two whole floors of shops. And there is a small brown sparrow flying there.

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Violet wonders if the sparrow has always lived in the shopping mall or if he flew in by mistake and can’t find his way out of the automatic sliding doors that creak open and shut as the people come and go. She wonders if indoor sparrows are jealous of outdoor sparrows, who have leafy trees to nest in, or if outdoor sparrows are jealous of indoor sparrows, who get doughnut crumbs and bits of hot dog to eat. It is difficult to know what small creatures think. But while Violet is wondering, the sparrow flies down onto the floor of the food court and hops and jumps just near where she is sitting.

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Reviews for Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I do love this series. Violet is a little bit too good to be true, but she feels more real than some brats in some children's books. I am glad that the school judges gave Nicola the certain recognition that they did.

[dms02 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think I liked this book even more than the 1st. The relationship between the two sisters in this one is really quite nice.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Violet tries to make a ladybug happy, but she accidentally kills her. Violet’s sister desperately needs an idea for her science fair project. These two little plot lines twist and curve around each other and result in a wonderful little story.

[leov_81 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Violet's sister, Nicola gets stressed out trying to work out what to do for a Natural Science Display exhibit, Violet wants to help. She tells Nicola about Small Gloria , a ladybird that she wanted to help by giving it a new habitat so it wouldn't be cold and wet, but instead it dropped dead. This sets Nicola thinking about life cycles of a ladybird. But how will she do something that is good enough for the competition?
This is a lovely story with nice pencil and ink illustrations. Although it seems aimed at a young age group it will hold an appeal for girls up to the age of nine or ten especially if they struggle with the longer novels for this age group.