The Snowy Bridesmaid

By Diane Redmond

A sixth title in the popular Bridesmaids series aimed at 6 – 8 year old girls, but not excluding the boys!

Milly’s brother is getting married to a girl in England and Milly is coming over with him to be bridesmaid. When she sees her outfit – red velvet and furry accessories, she thinks she’s in some kind of a time warp! After all, she’s a trendy little Australian miss! But when the snow starts to fall, the roads are blocked and she has to get to the wedding on a sledge she soon changes her mind. Now she thinks she’s in the middle of a fairy-tale!

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Feb 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9780007571734

Diane Redmond

Diane was born and educated in Lancashire. Her interest in children's books began when she used them to teach English in language schools in Italy.She returned to live in Cambridge, where she taught multi-cultural education before working as a radio and TV presenter.Diane has also been involved in script writing for TV and the stage. She was asked to write The Journey of Odysseus for a Children's Theatre, which gave her the inspiration to delve deeper into the world of the Ancient Greeks.

Book preview

Chapter One

As the plane bumped down on the runway, Mrs Tang nudged her sleeping daughter.

Milly, Milly, she whispered. Wake up – we’re in England!

Milly blinked and yawned.

It feels like the middle of the night, she muttered, still half asleep. "

It is the middle of the night – in Australia! laughed her father, Mr Tang. Here in Newcastle it’s midday. Come on, he added excitedly. It’s time to meet your Aunt Nancy!"

Milly’s stomach lifted with excitement. Aunt Nancy was Dad’s youngest sister, who she’d never met. A few months ago she’d sent Milly a beautiful bride doll, the very one she was now holding in her arms. With it had come a letter asking Milly to be a bridesmaid at her wedding in a strange, faraway place called Northumberland, in the north of England. Milly had been astonished! She’d always dreamed of being a bridesmaid, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she’d be a bridesmaid in England. She’d immediately written back to Aunt Nancy: YES! YES! YES! I’d love to be your bridesmaid!

Aunt Nancy had phoned them in Sydney several times, asking for Milly’s measurements, from her shoe size to the size of her head! She even knew exactly how long Milly’s silky black hair was.

Why does Aunt Nancy need to know everything about me? Milly asked her mother.

"She’s having a bridesmaid dress made for you so she needs to know your exact

Reviews for The Snowy Bridesmaid

[cbower6 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Snowy, by Berlie Doherty, illustrated by Keith Bowen and published in 1993 by Dial Books for young readers, is a contemporary realistic fiction picture book about a girl and her horse Snowy. I thought the story was ok at times. The illustrations were very good but I was bored with the language of the book and the lack of any character development or even description. The illustrations in this book are very good. They give extra detail to the horse Snowy, and the towns landscape. The illustrations help to bring out the story by giving me, the reader a glimpse into the world of Snowy. My favorite scene is when the children in the main characters class are going to see the horse. The illustrator painted a beautiful bridge with the class walking around it. What amazed me even more is how the author played with his light source and shadows. It is clear by the light on the bridge that he painted this side toward the sun. The author did a great job with the shadows of nearby plants and trees. The language of the book seemed very loose and jumbled. At one point the author would have us in the barge and then all of the sudden we would be in the barn with Snowy. There was no transitional language to take us between the two places. I also felt very bored while reading the book. The language just did nothing to draw me into the book. I always look for character development and description in a book. Unfortunately there was very little to almost no character development or description in this book. If it were not for the pictures I would not know what the main character, Rachel, looked liked. This is a real pet peeve of mine when the book does not describe the physical characteristics of a character. If a character is described then I can better picture that person in my head. In this book I kept thinking, what does Rachel look like? What does she wear? How tall is she? If I have a description of the character in my head then I can understand the story better. Also there was very little development. From what I could tell when I was reading this book is that Rachel does not have very many friends at school. I wondered what happened to that after they meet her horse. Did she gain any friends and did she develop any type of personality? Friendship is at the center of the big idea for this story. Snowy and Rachel have an undying friendship that will last for a long time.