Rainbow Magic Series

Our child who just turned 6 can’t get enough of these books. When we bring a new one hike from the library, it’s like we are presenting him with an ice cream sundae. There is gasping and jumping up and down. I can’t say that I quite understand the appeal. He is very interested in fairies and magic, so the subject matter is certainly right up his alley and he reads them easily enough. There is very distinct good vs bad which I appreciate.

There are so many Rainbow Magic Fairy books, all written under the same made-up author's name, all with similar themes. They seem to all go about like this: two friends are doing some typical childish activities like camping, celebrating a holiday, etc when some bad fairy messes things up, so the title good fairy joins up with the girls to save the day. Every one I've read was benign at worst, and had positive messages of helping others at best. I find the writing to be pretty awful, but for the girl who's just ready for chapter books, the series offers a lot to like. I don't recommend these as a family read-aloud. Save them for when your child wants to read alone. The stories don't have great writing, so saying it aloud doesn't enhance a thing. The characters are entirely indistinguishable, so reading their dialogue aloud just gets muddled, but it's good practice for a beginning reader to follow. The crisis the characters have to solve is so predictable (for a grown-up) that I just wanted to be done, but my kids find it to be actually compelling. Unlike some other early chapty books which I will read aloud (notably the A to Z mysteries), Rainbow Magic books just aren't any fun for adults. My kids, however? They can't get enough! My eager advanced reader started on them in kindergarten. She checked out one every single week at the school library and still wants more. She gets through 3 to 4 of the series every week now (summer after kindergarten) still loves them. She can summarize the plots, as thin as I find them, and loves to imagine herself in the fairy world. Her twin sister is a beginner but she, too, loves the fairy books. She can't manage the chapter books yet but loves the few versions in the easy reader category. The books seem pretty bland, but I'll take that! Nothing controversial (that I've seen, at least), nothing too scary- but lots of friendship, a little problem solving, and a whole lot of great practice at reading!