Rainbow Magic – The Weather Fairies Collection

Daisy Meadows' The Weather Fairies Collection is seven Rainbow Magic books in one volume for 5 year olds, with a whole week of VERY strange weather to put right.

What happens

This is the second set of Rainbow Magic, after the Rainbow Fairies, so Kirsty and Rachel already know the fairies. That first set begins with Ruby the Red Fairy, but everything you need is explained here too.

It opens on a sunny summer's day in Kirsty's village. Then snow lands on her nose! Her dad has also found a rusty old rooster weather vane in the park.

Soon Kirsty's fairy snow globe shatters and a whirlwind whisks her off to Fairyland, where Rachel is waiting. Jack Frost is bored in summer. So his goblins have snatched the seven magic tail feathers from Doodle, the rooster who runs Fairyland's weather. (Yes, that rusty weather vane is Doodle!)

Each Weather Fairy helps find her own feather. In Crystal the Snow Fairy a goblin is warming his cold feet by a cottage fire on Willow Hill. Kirsty's plan involves a shoe box and her dad's old slippers. Who could resist a parcel of warm slippers?

Then the week rolls on, one feather at a time.

In Abigail the Breeze Fairy, a gale tears through the village summer festival just as Kirsty's gran enters her chocolate fudge cake in the Cake Competition. Pearl the Cloud Fairy starts with the neighbours' cat missing and little clouds hanging over everyone's heads (putting them all in a terrible mood).

In Goldie the Sunshine Fairy the girls are about to camp out in the garden, but the sun won't set and the cornfield next door starts popping into popcorn! Evie the Mist Fairy takes them to a fun run in the woods, with silvery mist hanging off the branches like tinsel.

Storm the Lightning Fairy opens with lightning striking the very tree they're sheltering under. And in Hayley the Rain Fairy, Kirsty wakes to floodwater outside her bedroom window and a duck with five ducklings paddling past.

The stories really do run on. Rachel's stay is ticking away, and each time a feather goes home Doodle wakes for a second and squawks a little more of a warning. What's he trying to tell them?

The goblins are shoulder-high and grumpy, but mostly silly (one sneezes ice cubes). It's giggles rather than frights.

The text is the American edition, so it's Mom and vacation all the way through. Little ones probably won't notice.

What to read next

If your reader loves a mission they can tick off, seven feathers in one book is VERY satisfying. For another week of fairy trouble with Kirsty and Rachel, Morgan the Midnight Fairy is set at a holiday camp where the midnight feast fire just won't get hot.