Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

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.

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.

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.

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