Eleven-year-old Nolitye's granny used to say: if you mess with a woman, you mess with a stone. When Nolitye finds a magical stone on the dusty streets of Phola, her granny's words take on a new meaning. Along with her two friends - the somewhat pampered Bheki, and Four Eyes, a reformed member of the Spoilers gang led by Rotten Nellie - Nolitye puts the powers of the stone to good use: for the first time the threesome can stand up to the Spoilers; Nolitye can save the life of Rex, the leader of a pack of talking township mutts; and dare to look scary MaMtonga with her living brown-and-green snake necklace in the eye. But soon Nolitye finds out that the purplish-blue magic stone is but five stones needed to put right things that started to go wrong the day her father died in a mining accident when she was five years old. Or so she was told by her mother... By merging a cast of characters straight out of African myth folklore with everyday township life, K. Sello Duiker created a magical world and a truly wondrous quest, a timeless tale that will appeal to an ageless audience.

Released in minibieb de Snek for the next reader.

'The Hidden Star' is a good childeren's book. It has a good story, if you ask me, with great, wholesome plots. And it is scary at some parts, and the main characters discover a lot and have a lot of obstacles to overwin. There is not so much character development. There is a lot of magic, and the characters are quite well-described.
For me, a 20-year-old, it was also nice to read, but more for the insight of South-Africsa's culture and mythological background than the storyline. I had never read a story from a South-African childern's perspective before, or even from a genuine poor girl's perspective. It still is a children's book, and it didn't get so harsh, but the story gives a good insight, I think. As far as I can judge as a priviledged Dutch girl that knows real poverty only from stories.

I recommend this book to children maybe around 11, 12 years old. (The main character is also 11 years old.) But that doesn't say that older people shouldn't read it!

I gave the book to a friend of mine, and she said me that she would release it after reading or not reading it.