Orchard Books Unicorn Magic: Shimmerbreeze and the Sky Spell: Series 1 2

Love this book

I got this for my 8-year-old daughter who has enjoyed the Rainbow Magic fairy books in the past with that series being by the same author Daisy Meadows. This book is very similar to those books with both being designed perfectly for girls around my daughter's age. They are a good tool for helping girls make the transition into reading chapter books.The story features friends Aisha Khan and Emily Turner from Spellford village who are summoned to Enchanted Valley, a magical kingdom where their unicorn friends live. Trouble is brewing. "We're hoping to have a kite-flying competitionat the Nature Gala... but the kites won't leave the ground." It's because Shimmerbreeze's magical locket is missing. "The Air Unicorn Shimmerbreeze is in charge of making sure the air in Enchanted Valley is fresh and clean. She likes to use her magic to create little breezes, so her friends can fly their kites." But her locket has been stolen by "a wicked unicorn called Selena, who would stop at nothing to rule over Enchanted Valley". Queen Aurora tells the girls, "This is why I've brought you Enchanted Valley today... I'm worried the kites are just the start of the trouble Selena will cause with Shimmerbreeze's locket. We need your help to get it back."Indeed Selena does cause trouble with a terrible tornado. Luckily the girls save the day with a little help from Shimmerbreeze and some of the other magical creatures of Enchanted Valley such as a phoenix and Hob the goblin.Along the way there are plentiful clear and simple pictures to bring the words alive, and the story is written in big text too - ideal for early readers - as well as mostly being written in easy, accessible language. It's also good for my daughter to see female lead characters who are not that dissimilar to them (plus there is an Asian lead in this one too which is good for seeing diversity in literature).If I was to be critical then I would say this is very similar to the Rainbow Kingdom series. Just insert Rachel and Kirsty for Aisha and Emily, Fairyland for Enchanted Valley, Jack Frost for Selena and so on. The plots are written to a formula,but my daughter doesn't mind, plus perhaps familiarity for girls of this age group is good for inspiring confidence in their reading ability as they become newly-independent readers. Also it looks to me like this series is trying to compete with Julie Sykes similar series "Unicorn Academy" which started just before these books came out. If Daisy Meadows is trying to steamroller all over other competing series of books for young girls then I am not impressed.However overall a typical Daisy Meadows story that little girls should enjoy.

Shimmerbreeze and the Sky Spell: Series 1 Book 2 (Unicorn Magic)My 6 year-old daughter really enjoyed this book. If you are familiar with Daisy Meadows work, this series is very similar to Rainbow Magic and Magic Animal Friends - there is always a magic creature (fairies, animals and, in this case, unicorns), an evil counterpart who is trying to pollute, steal, destroy either their land or a precious item. For me, personally, the stories are a bit repetitive and predictive. Lucky for the author, I am not what you would describe as the “target demographic” so my opinion is neither here nor there...In this particular case, my daughter’s opinion is what really matters and here it is:“I loved this book because I love unicorns. I also liked that there was an adventure and that the unicorn managed to get the special locket back. I love a happy ending story”.She read it in a couple of days though, so if you daughter devours books like mine, it might be worth getting the whole series.

I have a 4.5 year old son who is fairy and unicorn mad so when I was given the chance to review this I thought I would. I have no experience of any other books this one may be linked to: Rainbow Magic and Magic Animal Friends so I'm approaching this as a first time reader for me to read to him. Suggested reading age is 5-7 and I'd agree it just didn't have enough for him to be captivated in the story yet we have read other stories that are chapter books. I've still given it 4 stars as I went on to finish it without him for the purpose of the review and it's a lovely little story. For any fan it is part of a series and I think around 6-8 would love this.

Started reading this to mads, we both enjoyed it.... but is more suited towards the young teen; maybe for their first book reading on their own. Personally, even tho it is a nice sweet story, I only expected to pay no more than £2 for this; so being priced at £4.99, this is an expensive book imo