Kate Wiseman, Middle Grade Specialist for MyBookCorner, selects her Best Book of 2017…

As a recent addition to the My Book Corner review team, I feel a bit of a fraud offering suggestions for my favourite book of the year. All the books I’ve reviewed have been excellent, for very different reasons.

However, as a fan of history and fun books, my favourite has to be Philip Ardagh’s The Secret Diary of Jenny Pinny, Victorian House Maid (and Accidental Detective), illustrated by Jamie Littler.

It has shedloads of historical snippets (delivered in footnotes, which I also adore) and is jolly good fun, too. Its dearth of cats is a slight setback, but it does offer a talking pigeon, and that’s just as good. More or less.

I’m hoping that Santa will take notice of my not particularly subtle hints and slip others in this series, which is produced in collaboration with the National Trust, into my Christmas stocking.

Discover the Best Books of 2017 from the MyBookCorner team, and a whole host of fabulous VIPs, right here as they are revealed, during Friday 29th December 2017.