The Blurb On The Back:

Rainbow magic

Jack Frost has kidnapped Frenchmen the Bulldog Fairy’s magical bulldog!  Without her pup and his magical collar, Frenchie can’t help puppy owners to look after their dogs.  Rachel and Kirsty must rescue Frenchie’s bulldog – and fast!

RAINBOW MAGIC: FRENCHIE THE BULLDOG FAIRY was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd March 2022.  Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

You can order RAINBOW MAGIC: FRENCHIE THE BULLDOG FAIRY by Daisy Meadows from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers):

It’s the day after RAINBOW MAGIC: LI THE LABRADOR FAIRY.

It is half term and best friends Rachel Walker and Kirsty Tate are volunteering at the Leafy Lane Animal Shelter.  They have already helped Li the Labrador Fairy recovery her puppy Buddy and his magical collar but Jack Frost’s goblins still have 3 other puppies and without them, their fairy owners cannot help puppy owners to properly look after their dogs.

When a magical message comes through one of the Shelter’s washing machines asking for their help, the girls don’t hesitate to answer the call and thanks to the lockets given to them by Queen Titania, they soon find themselves back in Fairyland.  There they find Frenchie the Bulldog Fairy, who has found evidence of where her French bulldog, Pepper, has been taken by the goblin dognapper but she needs the help of the girls to track them down and get her back.  

Rachel and Kirsty are only too happy to help but time is ticking – if they don’t get Pepper back soon then the goblin will take her to Jack Frost’s Ice Castle and she’ll be lost forever!

The second in Daisy Meadows (collectively Narinder Dhabi, Sue Bentley, Linda Chapman and Sue Mongredien) series for readers aged 5+ is a cute and informative affair that’s pitched at young girls.  The illustrations are fine, I liked the fact that Frenchie is a POC and there’s a good message here about patience and responsibility.  The RAINBOW MAGIC SERIES is a bit of an industry behemoth and this book makes it easy to understand its success.  

Because I read a lot of children’s books the RAINBOW MAGIC SERIES has always been on my radar as being very successful with young readers (particularly girls) but this is the first time I’ve read one.  They’re very slickly done, with the publisher running a clever “fairy points’ system that treats each book as one star, which readers can colour in on the back cover and “collect” as they read more and more.  There are different ‘mini series’ running under the overall RAINBOW MAGIC BANNER and this book forms part of a 4 book series that focuses on fairies who are responsible for helping people to look after their dogs.

I hadn’t read the first book in this series, but you don’t really need to as there’s a useful little recap at the front of the book to help explain what’s gone on (although I didn’t quite understand why the collars were important and whether the fairies could do their task with just the collar and without their dog).  I particularly liked the fact that Frenchie is a fairy of colour, which is great because being able to see yourself is really important for young readers, although I would have also liked to have seen Rachel or Kirsty as being from a non-white background just to show that you don’t have to be white to have a magical adventure.

The story is fairly straightforward and moves at a good pace, with both Frenchie and the girls having to use their wits and ingenuity to get Pepper back from her goblin dognapper.  One thing I wasn’t expecting was to feel sorry for the goblin who clearly doesn’t want to do what they’ve been ordered to do by Jack Frost and in a way, is as much of a victim as the fairies and puppies are.  I also hadn’t expected there to be tips on how to look after your dog with Frenchie explaining about food and exercise for puppies (some of which I was not aware of myself).  The illustrations are fine, if a bit rote (I would usually credit the illustrator but none is named here).

All in all, given the rise in the number of dogs bought by families during the COVID pandemic, this is a good book to give to a dog-mad young girl as she’ll enjoy reading it and learn something as well.  I would certainly read other books in this series based on this book.