Magic animal friends: Molly Twinkletail runs away by Daisy Meadows
Orchard Books, 2014. ISBN 9781408326268.
Rainbow magic books have been a popular choice for six to eight year
old girls transitioning to chapter books. Magic animal friends
is a new series from the same group and aimed at a similar audience.
Molly Twinkletail runs away is the second book of this series
featuring friends Jes Forester and Lily Hart and a magical forest
populated by cute talking animals.
As Jes and Lily set off to help in the Wildlife Hospital run by
Lily's parents they encounter Ginger the cat which had guided the
girls to Friendship Forest on their first adventure. Once again they
enter the magical forest and meet their talking animal friends who
are preparing for a fair. Here they encounter Molly Twinkletail who
loves helping, but being so small, is not allowed to help on the
family stall and so is offering her help to all and sundry.
Just as Molly scampers off, Grizelda the evil witch appears. She is
determined to take over the forest, making it a dark and gloomy
place. This time she has sent her servants, the dirty, ugly Boggits,
to destroy the Treasure Tree from which all the animals gather their
food. It is up to the girls and their animal friends to save the
tree, rescue Molly who has tried to help the Boggits by getting them
a drink and send the Boggits back to Grizelda's Tower.
With the sparkly cover, map of Friendship Forest, easy to read text
interspersed with line drawings of cute animals and the ugly
Boggits, this series follows the formula which has been so
successful in the past for the Rainbow magic group, this time drawing
on a love of small creatures rather than fairies.
Sue Keane