Angela Nicely: Superstar!

Angela Nicely: Superstar! is a book.

Talent!
At News Time, Miss Darling reveals that a talent contest is coming up. Everyone in the class wants to participate, with Tiffany wanting to do ballet, but Laura feels talentless. Angela points out that Laura can cross her eyes, but Laura feels that's insufficient. Maisie suggests she and her two best friends could do a pop mime, but Angela feels that idea is unoriginal. Tiffany dances past and teases Angela, who becomes jealous of Tiffany for winning everything.

After school, Angela asks Mrs Nicely, who is weeding the garden, what to do for the talent show. Mrs. Nicely suggests a dance, but Angela turns it down as Tiffany is already dancing. Mrs. Nicely suggests singing "I'm a Little Teapot" like Angela did at nursery school, but Angela feels she is too old for that now. She goes to Mr Nicely and asks him what her best talent is, and he suggests tickling. She feels that this doesn't count, so he suggests standing on her head. She feels that isn't special enough, so she muses over what she's seen on Britain's Got Talent, and decides that maybe she could "hippo-notize" (hypnotize) someone.

In class the next day, Maisie and Laura are practicing a dance, but having a bit of trouble. Angela approaches and explains that she needs an assistant to hypnotize. She tries to hypnotize Laura, but it doesn't work. Laura pretends to be hypnotized, but when asked to say, "Angela is amazing", she instead says, "Angela is a nutcase". This gives Angela an idea: have Laura volunteer to be hypnotized, and then pretend.

On the day of the talent contest, Laura and Maisie do their pop mime onstage, while Tiffany is in a huff, because Alice and Suki have decided to do ballet as well and Tiffany believes they copied. Angela is next up, so she goes onstage dressed as a man, and asks for a volunteer. Laura goes up and Angela pretends to hypnotize her, but then Tiffany asks to be hypnotized as well. Angela tries to hypnotize Tiffany, but it doesn't work. Then, Angela pretends that she's hypnotized Tiffany into believing she's Miss Boot, since both are loud and grumpy. This amuses the audience, but Tiffany and the real Miss Boot are both angry. When the talent contest ends, Angela loses (Dora being the winner with Tiffany and Ryan as the runners-up) but is told not to mind her loss, since her act was the funniest. Angela decides not to care about losing, since Tiffany didn't win either and there is always next year.

Nature Detectives!
Angela and her classmates are outside collecting things for the "Nature Table". They are split into two groups, with Mr Weakly leading Angela's. He says that he and the students are going to be "nature detectives" and asks for the kind of things they are looking for. Tiffany suggests flowers, Laura suggests a butterfly, and Angela suggests escaped bears and wolves. Mr. Weakly, finding that idea excessive, suggests they stick to "smaller things" such as plants, and has the class split up and search. After ten minutes, Laura has found leaves, Maisie has found seeds, Tiffany has found a snail shell, but Angela has found only dandelions. They approach a pond and Angela finds some weed, but it smells bad, discouraging her. However, she then finds a footpath to a wood and wants to go there.

She tells Mr. Weakly, who reveals that the wood is called Thornly Wood, and despite liking the woods, he doesn't want to go there now since he told Miss Darling they would stay on the school field. She points out that Miss Darling would appreciate anything they'd bring back, which convinces him, since he has a crush on Miss Darling. He leads the class into the woods and starts talking about oak trees, when Angela spots some pawprints. She and her classmates speculate on what left them, with Angela wondering if it was a wolf, but Mr. Weakly thinks the idea is unlikely.

They keep exploring for half an hour, when Tiffany and Maisie become tired and want to go back. Mr. Weakly tries to lead the kids back, but has lost sight of the path. All the students become afraid, except for Angela, then Mr. Weakly tries to phone Miss Skinner on his cell phone but gets no signal.

After a while, Angela wants to climb a tree to get a better view, but Mr. Weakly decides to do it instead. However, he can't find the path and is afraid to climb any higher or look down. Just as Angela is starting to feel the situation is hopeless, Miss Darling arrives, who sends for Mr Grouch, who rescues Mr. Weakly with a ladder. Miss Darling then sends Angela and her classmates back to school.

Girls United!
At morning break, Angela notices a poster for the school football team. She wants to sign up, but Bertie and Darren think the idea is ridiculous, since she has never played football before, and there are no girls on the poster, leading them to think the team is for boys only. Angela still wants to join the team, so she tells her parents at dinner. Mrs. Nicely isn't too sure, but Mr. Nicely thinks Angela will do well.

The next day, Angela tells her friends at the GOBS (Girls Only, Boys Smell) club that she thinks it would be good if they all joined, but they don't want to since the football team is mostly boys, and they believe boys are "rough", Laura's mother doesn't like her getting dirty, and Maisie feels that football is "stupid" as it makes you "cold and muddy". Angela tries to find another girl to join the football team, but Tiffany isn't interested and Dora cries too often, so Laura suggests asking the Payne twins as they already play football. However, they are mean to Angela, so she isn't sure.

Angela decides not to have anyone with her, and she tries out, along with sixteen boys, including Bertie. Miss Boot is initially unsure about letting Angela on the team since she is the first girl to try out, but eventually lets her on. They practice, but Angela has trouble as none of the boys pass to her and she keeps slipping on the mud due to wearing trainers instead of boots. She almost scores a goal, only for a redheaded boy to get into her way.

Angela gives up, but the next day, Miss Darling approaches her and reveals that she used to play football as well. At PE class, Miss Darling has the girls play football. At first, they aren't sure, but after the lesson, they become more eager, and Miss Darling organises a girls' football team.

Trivia

 * "Talent!" reveals that Angela can stand on her head longer than anyone she knows.
 * "Nature Detectives" reveals that Mr. Weakly used to climb trees, but developed a fear of heights at age nine and stopped.
 * "Girls United!" reveals that Miss Boot's first initial is M, that Laura's mother doesn't like her getting dirty, and that Miss Darling used to play football.
 * "Girls United!" alludes to the events of Dirty Bertie: Smash! by mentioning that Bertie once broke Mrs. Nicely's greenhouse with a football.