The Animals of Madame Malone's Music Hall

A cast of creative creatures take centre stage in this theatrical Barrington Stoke debut from Blue Peter Book Award shortlisted author Laura Wood.

Summer by the seaside isn’t working out as Callie hoped. Instead of enjoying sunshine and ice cream, she’s stuck helping Gran’s drama group put on a show to save the local theatre. Worst of all, they’ve asked her to star in their play. With Callie’s stage fright, there’s not a chance that’s happening.

But when she goes exploring backstage, Callie stumbles into an altogether different world – another theatre, run by a wise fox and her troupe of rather quarrelsome talking animals. Forced to face her fears, will Callie be able to put on a good show in the final fight to save Madame Malone’s Music Hall?

A cast of creative creatures take centre stage in this theatrical Barrington Stoke debut from Blue Peter Book Award shortlisted author Laura Wood.

Reviews

"An uplifting love letter to the power of community told with humour and warmth … Wood has written an absolute gem of a story here" – Just Imagine

"A true delight" – Armadillo Magazine

"The perfect reading performance for any youngster with their sights set on the theatre … Imaginative and full of quirky characters" – The Letterpress Project

"A great message for children … It's a story I'm sure many will enjoy reading including adults!" – The Stawberry Post

"A lovely reassuring book for children … The illustrations throughout by Ellie Snowdon bring the characters to life with humour and detail" – Anne Thompson, A Library Lady Blog

About the author

Laura Wood is a bestselling and award-winning author of books for children and young adults. She has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Warwick and in 2014 was awarded the the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for New Children’s Writing. Laura’s books include the Poppy Pym series, Vote for Effie, and A Sky Painted Gold.
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Ellie Snowdon is a children’s illustrator and author from South Wales. Ellie graduated from UWE Bristol with a first in Drawing and Applied Arts before completing her MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. In 2015, Ellie’s books, Lost and Found were highly commended for the Macmillan Prize for Illustration. Her first picture book, Great Bunny Bakes, was published in 2018, and she continues to collaborate with many prominent authors including Helen Peters on the Jasmine Green Rescues series; and best-selling author Laura Wood, illustrating for The Animals of Madame Malone’s Music Hall.