Review: Amanda Commander: The Pinky Promise

Book two in the Amanda Commander series by Coral Vass, illustrated by Heidi Cooper Smith, sees the Dolphin Squad faced with a new challenge. 

The cross country is coming up, and while Amanda quite enjoys running, one of her best friends, Mai, does not.

At Dolphin Squad headquarters (the small studio room in Amanda’s backyard), Amanda, Mai and Lucia hatch a plan to support Mai. 

They decide — they pinky promise — to run the cross country together so they can all finish at the same time. Except...

...that isn’t what happens, and somehow Amanda gets left behind.

Mai and Lucia have some serious friendship fixing to take care of, but how do you fix a broken pinky promise?

The Pinky Promise is the second instalment in the Amanda Commander series, a fresh and contemporary junior fiction series for kids who love real and relatable characters experiencing real and relatable life challenges. These books are fun, cheery and easy to read, but I love how they step into real-world kid life to look at some of the issues kids really do have to contend with, like friendships, school challenge and self-discovery.

I have a confession to make about this book. I actually read this one before I read book one, The Purple Invitation. But what I discovered is a really great benefit of this series — it really didn’t matter.

Each book stands alone, so you can read them in and out of order, jumping into different challenges facing the girls at different times. This makes the series really accessible for junior readers.

Heidi Cooper Smith’s beautiful illustrations also add to the magic. Scattered throughout, they support Amanda’s world and help new readers with that jump into longer books.

This series is like a big hug for junior readers. It explores real life with humour and cheerfulness, and it helps readers tap into their inner strength to rise up and face their own life challenges.

Check out KBR’s review of The Purple Invitation to find out more about this great new series, and look out for book 3 (The Yellow Dress) coming out in September 2022.

Title: Amanda Commander: The Pinky Promise
Author: Coral Vass
Illustrator: Heidi Cooper Smith
Publisher: Wombat Books, $12.99
Publication Date: June 2022
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781761110788
For ages: 6 - 9 
Type: Junior Fiction