Magnolia Mudd and the Super Jumptastic Launcher Deluxe by Katey Howes and Valerio Fabbretti (Sterling)

I can honestly say we've never reviewed a book with such a zazzy title - but there's a rather neat STEM message tucked into the story of Magnolia Mudd...
You see Magnolia really isn't the sort of girl who gets excited by frilly dresses, new shoes or hordes of pink confetti.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, as Magnolia is happy to invent cool gadgets and put together awesome science experiments with Uncle Jamie. But Unc is getting married, to a very prissy seeming lady who Magnolia is convinced will change Jamie for the worse.

She comes up with a plan to subvert the wedding, throwing all her effort into an amazing super jumptastic launcher (deluxe, no less) to fire the bride's bouquet far into the crowd at the right moment.

Surprisingly for Magnolia, Uncle Jamie's new bride to be thinks this is an AWESOME idea - and soon the two bond over this brilliant project. It's the start of a wonderful friendship (plus Magnolia is allowed to 'be herself' at the wedding too, even better!)

We both loved this idea, particularly as C is about to be a flower girl for her own awesome Uncle (well, next year at least) though we'll politely discourage any notion of building a rocket-powered confetti cannon - you never know how these things are going to go over in the real world.

C's fave bit: Uncle Jamie's awesome new bride turns out to be even more awesome than imagined.

Daddy's fave bit: A great story for girls who aren't 'girly' and rather love the idea of being allowed to be themselves (as well as encouraging girls that science is definitely NOT just for boys!)

(kindly supplied for review)

"Magnolia Mudd and the Super Jumptastic Launcher Deluxe by Katey Howes and Valerio Fabbretti is out now, published by Sterling.