Danika in the Underworld
Ranulfo

Macmillan 2003
175pp., pbk., 16.95
0330364073

Danika in the Underworld by Ranulfo is a fantasy/comedy adventure, which sees an ordinary girl from the suburbs taking on the evil John Smith, ruler of the Underworld.

Danika is an ordinary girl with a wild imagination who spends a lot of her time playing with her Mandy doll which she has dressed in camouflage gear and guns and this is exactly what brings her to the attention of the evil John Smith. He sees her as being the biggest threat to his Kingdom in the Underworld.

Out of the blue Danika has a letter delivered by a talking pigeon. The letter is from Prince Zamza who has been taken prisoner by John Smith and needs Danika help to save. Why Danika? Because she has a wild imagination and wild imaginations are what are the most useful and powerful thing in the Underworld. Danika only ends up helping because her brother Branwell has been flushed down the toilet into the Underworld. So Danika flushes herself down the toilet to rescue her brother. It is now that the weird and wacky adventures begin.

This book would be suitable for the middle to upper primary age range and would be suited to those who like adventure and fantasy combined with a weird sense of humour. I enjoyed reading this book but some of the events in the book are a bit unbelievable at times.

Lily, aged 10 years, Adelaide.