Emily Feather and the chest of charms by Holly Webb

I love Holly Webb her fantasy series for younger readers. After Emily discovers she's adopted and her family are fairies in the first book, Emily Feather and the Enchanted Door, she has a lot of complicated feelings about where she belongs. In the second book, Emily Feather and the Secret Mirror, she has some frightening adventures that don't allow her to really deal with these feelings, but do draw her a little bit deeper into fairyland.

In the third book, Emily's spark of magic and her relationship with her sisters is explored a little more. One of her sisters has apparently become enamored of a boy that none of her siblings, including her twin sister, like. Turns out they were right when he is shown up as a villain. Emily has to force herself past her feelings of inadequacy to join with her sister and brother to save her older sister. In the process, she learns more about her family, has some exciting and frightening adventures, and realizes that she really does have a spark of magic.

Verdict: This series just gets better and better. It has all the sparkly magic one expects from a fairy story, an age-appropriate, more serious discussion of what it means to be part of a family, and exciting adventures - all condensed into less than 200 pages. This one is worth purchasing from the UK, since it's not available here in the States, and worth getting in paperback, even if you have to replace it a couple times. Give it to the kids who have outgrown Rainbow Magic but still love fairies and to those who want a fantasy that isn't 400 pages long.

ISBN: 9781407130941; Published 2014 by Scholastic UK; Purchased for my personal library