Delilah Dusticle by A. J. York, e-book, 81 pages, published by Smashwords in 2013.

Delilah is a whizz at removing dust; she waves her special feather dusters and it simply disappears. She works in a grand house in London, and is in love with her employers’ son. When he announces his engagement to another, Delilah goes into a deep funk, creating dust everywhere she goes instead of removing it. Unemployed, and all alone, will Delilah ever recover herself?

Delilah Dusticle is quite an uplifting story, one which I enjoyed a lot. It is amazing what the power of friendship can do, and while Delilah waits for a long time to find that friendship, when it arrives, it is beautiful.

With short chapters and easy language, Delilah Dusticle is a sweet chapter book for young independent readers to try. It is also a charming story to read aloud, or for older children to lose themselves in. There are simple colour illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. These pictures represented the contents of the chapter quite well. My daughter was very taken with the little spider that appears in some of the illustrations.

Delilah is an intriguing character (she actually likes to clean!). I wish I could eradicate dust with a swish of my duster! Yet, when her heart is broken, she can’t help but leave a thick layer of dust all over. Picturing her room and belongings covered in dust, and the little mouse making tunnels in it was amusing, but the reason behind it is so sad. Poor Delilah. No one should have to be alone like that, and it is wonderful when she begins to become friends with Abi. I love their meetings at the park, feeding ducks and talking. I liked both Delilah and Abi.

This book is most suitable for lower and middle primary school children, but older children and adults can also appreciate this lovely tale. I’m excited to see what Delilah gets up to in her next book, Delilah Dusticle’s Transylvanian Adventure, which is also available now.

*I received this book as a digital copy from the author, who asked me for an honest review of this book. I did not receive any other remuneration, and the review is composed entirely of my own opinions.