Customer Reviews

Joy the Summer Vacation Fairy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These are great books for little girls, but I thought people should know that this is the exact same book as Summer the Holiday fairy. They use "Americanized" English in this book, but everything else is exactly the same. I thought I would let people know, so you won't buy this book if you already have the other one as I did. The publishers should have left the fairy's name the same, because this is a bit misleading if you ask me.

Warning to parents: the whole Rainbow Magic premise grows thin after awhile, certainly if you've read the 7 color fairy books, the 7 weather fairy books, and now Joy the Summer Vacation Fairy. It's a familar Rainbow Magic plot; Jack Frost has stolen three magic shells; two human girls who are friends with the fairies have to help Joy get them back so their favorite summer vacation place gets its magic back. Instead of a series of 7 related books though this is one long "super book", subdivided into three short stories. All about Joy though. If you've read the other Rainbow Magic books this will make sense.

Bottom line, cute books for the 6-10 age range. Girls just getting into chapter books will love them and more proficient readers will enjoy them as well. They are fluffy stuff. Rather boring to parents, but we aren't the target audience. Light action, adventure, fantasy for kids. My daughters just love it.

This book was a great transition to Chapter Books for my daughter entering first grade. She loves the Junie B. Jones books, but as a parent, I did not like the language or the antics of Junie B. It was refreshing to read a light-hearted book full of age appropriate adventure and mystery.

"Joy The Summer Vacation Fairy" (2005)

This is another entry series of "Rainbow Magic" fairy books written by Daisy Meadows, an appealing and inoffensive -- but extremely formulaic -- series aimed at young readers who are into fairy tales. These books are innocent and engaging, focusing on two young girls, Kirsty and Rachel, who are drawn into the magical world of the fairies, and their ongoing conflict with the mischievous Jack Frost. The structure of every book in this series is nearly identical: the girls are given a quest in which they must help the fairies (each with sparkles aplenty and cute, super-girly outfits and princess-y names such as Hayley, Heather, Iris, Amber and Iris... ) who have been bothered by Jack and his goblin helpers. Invariably, Jack Frost has stolen some magical item of value to the fairies and Kirsty and Rachel are called upon to get it back. This book is slightly different in that they only meet one fairy -- Joy -- while there are three items they need to find (in this case, magical sea shells). Although this is a single book, in length it would be the equivalent to three books in the regular seven-book sets of the other "Rainbow Magic" stories.

In all honesty, these books are pretty boring (after you've read more than one story arc, Jack Frost and his hapless goblins are not very interesting) and neither of the two girls have much in the way of distinctive, individual personality.

On the plus side, though, these books are not very scary or troubling - there is action, but no real violence and not much real danger (the goblins are easily beaten, and not very frightening) so if you are looking for longer narratives for young kids to read, but don't want anything disturbing, this series is good option. One criticism is that the books are pretty WASP-y, and while a couple of the fairies might be seen as Asian, basically the entire series takes place in an all-white, middle-class world, populated with thin, blonde girls and a few brunettes. Other than that, though, this is a good series for families looking for light, engaging, age-appropriate stories. (ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

Just received a Kindle Fire. I "borrowed" this book from Amazon (prime) so that my daughter could read it and then take a test on it for school. It's missing an entire chapter! So not only do we have to wait about two weeks to "borrow" another book, but she won't be able to take a test on it AND I now question how reliable the ebooks are. If it weren't for the table of contents and a picture, we'd never have known the chapter was missing..that is until she failed her test.

I have enjoyed many in this series with my daughter and nieces. The kids simply crave these books and I can't say no - anymore than Mom could tell me no to Nancy Drew ;).

These are quick reads and terrific for bedtime stories because of the length of the chapters. If you've not grabbed a Fairy Story you need to grab one.

If you want to know what really bugs me, it is when people get names wrong!I mean, it's Izzy the Indigo Fairy, not Inky! Don't get me wrong, I love Daisy Meadows' writing, I am only 10, but I grew up in England untill I was 6, and it just bugs me.But, all in all, I love Daisy Meadows' writing!

My daughter liked this as much as all the other Rainbow Magic Fairy books. It was a little thicker and more substantial of a read for her.