Spellbound product reviews

This book has some of the most beautiful artwork within its covers, and before reading the actual story, my daughter (aged 9) and myself spent quite some time just looking at the pictures. Some pages the artwork takes up the entire page from edge to edge, while other pages that have smaller pictures, the art is surrounding by pretty flowery boarders. We really did enjoy looking at the pictures.

The actual story was a bit harder to appreciate unfortunately. It seemed to be a bit rushed, as though the author needed to fit so much information within the pages, that some areas were only just briefly touched upon, such as the fairy sister being found and returning home. For miss 9, who has wonderful comprehension and reading skills, and is advanced academically with her reading, some of the words used were even hard for her.

Being a mythical and magical story, the words and story line were appropriate but for children who are not used to this kind of literature it was possibly a bit confusing and over whelming. At times I even found myself having to re-read some of the story to make it understandable and to fit with what I was reading lol Not a fault of the authors though, we have all just got so lazy with our reading and writing these days that we take beautiful written literature for granted at times.

This is a beautiful book. It is stunning, and for the right age group or reader would be very appreciated. I do not think it is really suitable for anyone under maybe the age of 10, unless an adult is reading it with/to them. But that aside, a really lovely book that would make a wonderful keepsake gift for years to come.

The pictures in this book are stunning, its how I imagine a fairy world would look. They are so vivid and breath taking and when they are not taking up the whole page they have a very cool boarder which has inspired my daughter to add in her future 'publishing' at school. The wedding picture with all of the guests is so magical that my youngest asked if we could take a copy and put on her wall. I love when the fairies and animals world combine.

However the story is not as fantastic as the pictures and we had a few issues with it. My eldest who is seven read it and I was suprised by how much trouble she had with it. It uses words that although she knows, has not had the experience of reading before. Maybe because of this factor she said afterwards that she did not enjoy the story. My youngest loved it but as Miss 7 said its because she loves all things Magical. I personally was not a fan of the story and found it rather confusing.

I liked the way it explained the scenes but it was the actual story I had issues with. The jealousy of the eldest fairy makes her cast a spell on her youngest sister at the same time two fairy brothers are out looking for wives. Naturally they fall in love, but the eldest son can see the eldest sister is evil and calls her out on it. Sounds fine up to this point but because she explains the reasoning behind her devious act all is forgiven and he marries her anyway. I guess it is trying to say if you tell the truth good things will always happen but I found the flow just wasn't there and jumped around a bit.

We have now had for a couple of days and neither of the girls have picked it up again and asked for it to be read, which goes to show it was more about the pictures and not the actual story which is sad as it had so much potential, unfortunately I agree it just did not deliver.