An embarrassingly long time ago, someone contacted me and asked if I wanted to review some kid's books - a series called The Fairy Chronicles. I said "sure" and two books arrived in my mailbox.
I read the two books (Marigold and the Feather of Hope, Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams) and thought they were sweet, if somewhat pedantic and rather earnest. I loved the vaguely Victorian illustrations, which remind me a little of Arthur Rackham. And both books ended with an activity at the end - a recipe in one, directions for a woven bracelet in the other.
But I felt ill-equipped to "review" the books. At the time, my child was about three and a half, and they were way beyond her comprehendibility. So I shipped them off to my then five year old niece, who was just beginning to read, and asked her to review them for me.
The books were a little advanced for her, but with the help of her mother, she managed to read them. Eventually, she even wrote the book review I requested, but then the piece of paper disappeared - and didn't reappear until last week. By now, my niece is almost seven, and told her mother "I write so much better now!".
When all is said and done though, I think her "reviw" demonstrates that this series of books (there are about 14 books so far) is very appealing to the fairy-besotted elementary school girl.
29 January 2009
And More I Want To Read
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13 comments:
Aw! My reviews are similar. "I like it. And same as up thare." What more is there to say?
I love it! That is the best kind of recommendation.
My daughter would have loved these when she was younger--fairy-besotted was an understatement.
What a precious review. I would think this would be a family heirloom.
cute.
MQ would probably love them. ;)
Excellent review.
My comment is the same as up thare.
Snicker...
And poor Lila was mortified when I showed her this post. Her spelling is still pretty hair-raising at times, but her penmanship is much improved!
What a great review!
"Same as up thare." : I can think of some library school assignments I'd like to use that for (might fix the spelling, though. :) ).
Please, please, Maggie dear, DON'T promote those books which are some of the worst hack fiction I've read in 25 years of work as a childrens' librarian and 40 something years of reading kids books!
The pictures are adorable. But JR (age 9) can write better fiction than that author. So probably could most elementary school girls.
(They were self published (which tells you something right there) and then some company glommed on to them, put fancy artwork on the covers and was shameful enough to publish them.)
Give those girls the "Rainbow Fairies" and the 12 million other series being done by the author with the unfortunate pen name "Daisy Meadows". They're slight, but they at least have characterization and plots. Or even the "Disney Fairies" series. I hate promoting the evil Mouse, but those books aren't half bad.
JR also introduced me to the "Tiara Club" books at a school book fair. I bought them for the library and the girls love them. There are all the trapping of princesses, but the girls are basically real little girls dealing with other real little girls. Written by the very good childrens' author Vivian French.
End of rant. Will try to confine such rants to my own blog, where they belong in the future. But you pushed one of my buttons :-}
I love her confidence at being such a better writer now.
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