I sometimes wonder if I am not unfair, criticising the assembly-line productions of collectible children's book series that seem to be more prominent (and substantially longer!) now than ever. After all, they do what they are supposed to do, the publishers and presumably the authors can laugh all the way to the bank, and if the children are reading, isn't it better than if they are not?? The early reader niche is a hard one, because the text needs to be simple and easy to deal with for the approximately 6 year old who has just started to read by themselves. The fairy and princessy series provide this just-starting-to-read material in a format that ...  Read the complete review