First, let it be known that Isabelle is LOVING this series. Today, she read 5 of these fairy books!
Okay, so, there was a little questionable behavior in this book. The girls suspect that Sunny the Yellow Fairy is in a beehive, and even though they are wearing protective hoods, the rest of their bodies are exposed when they open up the beehive without permission from the beekeeper! But I suppose no one wants to read about main characters who are complete goody two-shoes, and no one ever has adventures by being an absolute rule-follower. I still get the impression that the series does make an effort to lean more towards safe and appropriate behavior, whenever possible, because even though the text says the girls took off their hoods once they opened the beehive, the illustrations around the beehive always show the girls with their hoods on.
In this book, we also have our first encounter with Jack Frost's goblins. They strike me not so much as evildoers capable of cruel acts, but more as just bungling troublemakers, like Gargamel from The Smurfs. Their mischief surrounding Sunny's wand was foiled thanks to the assistance of some friends Sunny made while in captivity.
While I enjoyed the introduction of Bertram in the last book, I'm a little put off by him now. He seems like a kind enough frog, and he means well, but I don't like the way his presence implies that the fairies - girl fairies - wouldn't have been able to take care of themselves without his - a male's - protection.
Rachel and Kirsty continue to be rather flat characters, but now I am wondering if they are purposely left under-developed... If the main characters are generic enough, maybe that allows a young reader to more readily imagine that she herself might be one of the girls in the story?
Anyway. One final interesting tidbit. Sunny the Yellow Fairy was originally called Saffron the Yellow Fairy when the book was first published in England. Is saffron too esoteric for American readers?
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