Snowy Showdown (Felicity Wishes) by Emma Thomson

Snowy Showdown (Felicity Wishes) by Emma Thomson
Buy Snowy Showdown (Felicity Wishes) by Emma Thomson at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Magda Healey
Summary: Another example form the plethora of endless and mercilessly commercial early reader series about glittering fairies and the like, this one has stylish if still overtly sweet illustrations and a plot line with some resemblance of dynamic conflict and resolution. Better than some, but only buy if you have to.
Buy? No	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 128	Date: 18 Oct 2007
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
ISBN: 978-0340943984
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Snowy Showdown is another example from the plethora of endless and mercilessly commercial early reader series about glittering fairies and the like. Grand Winter Sports are coming to Bloomfield and Felicity and her friends are excited about watching the competition. Felicity is a tobogganing fan and on the toboggan run she meets Tally - one of the competitors desperate to beat her record and win. She even resorts to cheating at practice runs! How will felicity help Tally to get her confidence back? And what about the Winter Olympics at the Snow Pole?

As you can see, there is slightly more to the characters and plots of the Felicity books (or at least this one) than to the other glittery fare the BookBag reviewed, although the sparkle overkill and the rather mercenary commercial intention typical of producing a merchandise line are still there. What amazed me is that the plot summary presented for this title at Amazon is completely different from the content of the book I am holding, despite the same cover design, the title and the title of the first story/chapter. The actual book doesn't contain any references to Felicity on skis, as the cover would suggest.

It doesn't really matter, though. The Fairy World sparkles, the storyline contains a very gentle adventure and a slight nod towards psychology and internal conflict, the girls (the whole book doesn't contain a single male character!) have fun and overcome difficulties through their ingenuity and the power of self-belief, with a little help from their friends. Friendship rituals are suggested, the baits for collectors are present and the extra merchandise advertised.

If you have a daughter who has just started to read by herself and you're looking for (or she demands) an easy and girly story with lots of glitter and fluttering skirts, you could do worse than Snowy Showdown.

The artwork has some individuality and style, though it's obviously a tad too sweet to be genuinely appealing to anybody above the age of 9 (but then it's not really supposed to). The production is rather lovely: glossy paper and colour illustrations make it comparatively good value. The story is told over three semi-self-contained chapters which would make it more approachable to those that have just begun to read; there is even some attempt at sketching characters that differ in more than their dress colour and having a little bit of a dynamic conflict (with a positive moral of self belief hammered in at every opportunity). I wouldn't go out of my way to get this, but even if you had to read parts of it aloud, it would be bearable.

This book and the album mentioned below were sent to the Bookbag by the publishers.

There is also a Felicity Wishes Keepsakes Album now out, in which the whole format works better than in a storybook and which would make a nice present for a girly girl (even possibly a bigger girl than those who might want to read the stories).

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You can read more book reviews or buy Snowy Showdown (Felicity Wishes) by Emma Thomson at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.

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