Honey the Sweet Fairy

Daisy Meadows' Honey the Sweet Fairy is a sugary Rainbow Magic adventure for 5 year olds, set in a sweet shop where the sweets have started behaving very strangely.

What happens

Kirsty's mum has forgotten to buy toffees for Gran. So Kirsty and Rachel offer to pop down to Mrs Twist's shop after lunch. It's her last day before she retires, and she's throwing a party for all her customers.

But something's wrong the minute they get there. The chocolate bars have gone soft and soggy. A little girl is in tears because her sweets taste funny. Poor Mrs Twist thinks the whole lot is spoiled.

Then the girls look along the shelves. The chocolate mice have their paws over their eyes. The gingerbread men are holding hands. And a jar of gummy worms is hissing like snakes! Who could be behind it? A footprint in a tray of melted chocolate gives it away.

This is book 18 in Rainbow Magic and the fourth of the Party Fairies. Jack Frost wants their bags of party magic for a party of his own, so his goblins are spoiling parties all over the place. It's all explained in the first few pages.

In the stockroom a goblin is trying to wrestle a party bag off a tiny fairy in a pale yellow dress. Out come the jawbreakers and the giant candy canes (it turns out goblins are VERY ticklish).

The magic dust spills everywhere in the scuffle, though. So Honey whisks the girls off to Fairyland to fetch fresh sweets.

That trip is the best bit for little ones. The Party Workshop is a golden castle full of fairies getting ready for the king and queen's big celebration. There's a glitter fountain, a frog band and a present with wings that zooms round the room. Then there's Honey's own orchard, where lemon drops and caramel apples grow on the trees. Who wouldn't want a skipping rope made of liquorice?

It's very gentle. The goblin is greedy and grumpy but much more silly than scary.

We've got the American edition in the library, where she's called Honey the Candy Fairy and every sweet is "candy". The UK books call her Honey the Sweet Fairy, which is the name on this page. Your reader probably won't mind which!

What to read next

If they've got a sweet tooth, there's more where this came from. Coco the Cupcake Fairy is in the library too, and Honey's the one who knocks on the girls' door this time. Jack Frost has pinched the charms that keep every treat tasty, and even the icing turns grey.