Read Phoebe the Fashion Fairy free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Daisy Meadows' Phoebe the Fashion Fairy is a dressing-up Rainbow Magic adventure for 5 year olds, about a ruined party dress and a goblin who really should have stayed out of the garden.
It's Charlotte's birthday, and Kirsty and Rachel turn up early with her present. But Charlotte isn't in a party mood at all. Her favourite white-and-gold dress is covered in splotches of green paint. (Goblin green, the girls notice straight away.)
Her little brother Will gets the blame first. He's been in the garden all morning digging up worms, though, and he's very pleased with himself about it.
While Charlotte and her mum rush the dress to the dry cleaner's, the girls offer to ice the cupcakes. Then a stream of tiny red hearts floats past the window. It's Phoebe, the fairy in charge of party outfits, come to put things right.
This is book 20 in Rainbow Magic and the sixth of the seven Party Fairies. All week the girls have been helping stop Jack Frost's goblins grabbing the fairies' bags of magic dust. The opening pages explain it, so nobody is lost.
What follows is super slapstick. The goblin bursts out of Will's toy box like a jack-in-the-box and squirts Phoebe in the tummy with icing. She lands in a strawberry jelly and bounces out again. Then he grabs her party bag and he's off!
He barricades himself inside the playhouse and won't come out, not even for cupcakes that fly through the air and dance on the windowsill. So the girls try something much wetter. (Goblins HATE cold feet.)
It's a race against the clock as well, which little ones will feel. Charlotte and her mum could be back any minute, and the garden is turning into a mud pit.
The ending is a dream for anyone who loves dressing up. Who wouldn't want a dress with an embroidered dragonfly that actually flutters?
It's very gentle. Phoebe isn't hurt by her tumble, and the goblin ends up soggy rather than scary.
This is the American edition, so the jelly is "Jell-O" and the garden is a "yard". It won't trip anyone up.
The Party Fairies' week starts back in Cherry the Cake Fairy, on Kirsty's own birthday. That's where Bertram the frog footman shows the girls all seven fairies hard at work, and Phoebe is busy on a dress covered in sequins.
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
7-day free trial. Then £7.99/month.
