A wonderfully imaginative and spiritual journey to the Land of Sparkle.

The idea behind this story – that everything is dependent on everything else – needs to be written about more, in my opinion, and author L.B.B. Ward has tackled this with imagination and sensitivity. Professor Angelicus, himself, symbolises the interconnectedness of all things by being a mixture of person and plant – his leaf-like ears and flower-like antenna serving as an early warning system when something isn't right. He teaches Zak and Ivy, the two children he meets when he lands on Earth (the Big Blue Ball), that sharing what one has with others is the way to live a happy and balanced life. Everything is a Shareling (a lovely word!) – people, plants, animals, water, air, the planet itself. Professor Angelicus says of his planet, Quantia (or the Land of Sparkle),

“We share our food and water, our feelings and love. We share everything. We share the space on our planet equally. We're all friends on Quantia and we all speak the same language. The animals talk, the trees, the flowers...even the rivers sing...In harmony, of course. You become a Shareling by doing what you can do best.”

On their journey to find pure water to fuel the Professor's bubble spaceship back home, the children and Angelicus are helped by all kind of animal sharelings e.g. Monique, the French butterfly; Seetasha, the whale, and President of the Underwater Confederation; and Prime Minister Popadopadon, a huge three-eyed, dinosaur-like creature, who is 70 million years old and is cousin to the Loch Ness Monster. Besides having three differently coloured eyes to see the past, present and future, he also has a body coloured every shade of green and blue and has a white belly with red and orange polka dots – how, I would have loved to have seen a picture of him, when I read that! When the travellers' fears overwhelm them, the evil Borrell appears - a monster that can take any form – and Zak and Ivy learn that the only way to defeat him is to think positive thoughts. Eventually, they find the pure water they've been seeking and they all travel to Quantia to see the Rainbow Festival, using one of the starpaths that criss-cross the universe.

The description of the Rainbow Festival and the Grand Council at Great Spirit Mountain is probably my favourite part of the book, as the author describes beautifully and imaginatively a world of wonderful joy, sharing and harmony, where all things are possible, but there are marvellous words of wisdom peppered throughout the book, such as when the Professor is talking to Popadopadon in the Palace of Memories: “Things have gotten out of alignment here. Hate makes more hate. Only love can make love. If the Guardian Residents balanced their body, mind and spirit, the Big Blue Ball would be better balanced.”

And when seeing all the rubbish dumped in the ocean, Angelicus says about humans, “Why do they do that?...What do they think the water can do with their garbage?”

There are some quite challenging spiritual themes to the book and what readers gain from it will depend on their age, but the book deserves to be read by young and old alike, as it will open their eyes to a different way of looking at and living on this wonderful living, breathing Big Blue Ball of ours before, hopefully, it's too late.