Star Rescue (Frances Bloom #3) by Katrina Nannestad, illustrated by Marina Zlatanova

Title: Star Rescue (Frances Bloom #3)

Author: Katrina Nannestad, illustrated by Marina Zlatanova

Genre: Humour

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 29^th September 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 144

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: Relish in mischief, adventure and the most unusual family ever, with the bestselling and multi-award-winning Katrina Nannestad.

Frances Bloom has everything she needs — a cottage by the sea, a fairy floss machine and grandparents who never say, ‘Don’t!’ Life is perfect … until Steven Starmaker begins searching for his runaway movie star … Frances’s gold is stolen during the Year 3 treasure hunt … Grandma Maude and Grandpa Harold disappear … and a strangely familiar woman called Ms Thorn appears on the scene.

Can Frances rescue her family and bring them home to Apple Cottage? Or is she doomed to be taken away to Bleak Island Home for Unwanted Children and Dogs?

Delight in the cheeky antics of eight-year-old Frances Bloom with MULTI-AWARD-WINNING Australian author Katrina Nannestad.

~*~

Frances Bloom is back for her third adventure. Life is perfect in Apple Cottage with a fairy floss machine, a pirate for a teacher, and grandparents that never say no (well, to be fair, one is a bear and the other is a garden gnome). Everything is perfect at home and at school with two great teacher’s that let the kids have fun with music and treasure hunting. And then there’s her fabulous classmates who are the most dedicated friends ever. 

But things aren’t going to stay that way. A big filmmaker called Steven Starkmaker is sniffing around, and there is something oddly familiar about his assistant, Ms Thorn. Frances needs to rescue her family before she is carted off to Bleak Island Home for Unwanted Children and Dogs. 

The third Frances Bloom is another fun book in this junior fiction series about a young girl who sent her parents away and got a new family so she could have fun without hindrance. It’s a kid’s dream, right? The sinister Shorts are back, and trying to get their hands on her, which complicates things. Frances is desperate to get Grandma Maude and Grandpa Harold back from wherever they have gone. 

So once the year three treasure hunt is over, Frances sets out to find them, and hopes to enlist help from her friends, because she is going to need all the help she can get this time. And luckily, everyone in her class is ready to help her. This is such a really good way to show family comes together in different ways, and that everyone defines family differently. We all have different families, everyone has a different experience of family and this feels like the core message of the book. 

Coming together is an important aspect of the book, where we get to see how creativity plays a role in our lives. Who wouldn’t like a bear and garden gnome as parents or grandparents, and to never hear the word no? Of course, this is a really great fantasy for kids to explore in a safe way, and gives them a safe space to imagine what they would do if they had no rules to abide by. 

This is a fun series, and each one sees Frances overcoming the Shorts, thwarting their plans and sending an enemy back to the Harsh Island Home for Unwanted Teachers and Cats. Each book ends this way, bring new adventures and challenges for Frances to overcome. It’s also a great series to give children space to learn about solving problems, and discuss how they can approach challenges that they may not have foreseen. 

I’ve been loving this series, and can’t wait to see what comes next if there’s more. If not, this was the perfect ending to this book.