Magic animal friends: Molly Twinkletail runs away by Daisy Meadows

Orchard Books, 2014. ISBN 9781408326268.
Rainbow magic books have been a popular choice for six to eight year old girls transitioning to chapter books. Magic animal friends is a new series from the same group and aimed at a similar audience. Molly Twinkletail runs away is the second book of this series featuring friends Jes Forester and Lily Hart and a magical forest populated by cute talking animals.
As Jes and Lily set off to help in the Wildlife Hospital run by Lily's parents they encounter Ginger the cat which had guided the girls to Friendship Forest on their first adventure. Once again they enter the magical forest and meet their talking animal friends who are preparing for a fair. Here they encounter Molly Twinkletail who loves helping, but being so small, is not allowed to help on the family stall and so is offering her help to all and sundry.
Just as Molly scampers off, Grizelda the evil witch appears. She is determined to take over the forest, making it a dark and gloomy place. This time she has sent her servants, the dirty, ugly Boggits, to destroy the Treasure Tree from which all the animals gather their food. It is up to the girls and their animal friends to save the tree, rescue Molly who has tried to help the Boggits by getting them a drink and send the Boggits back to Grizelda's Tower.
With the sparkly cover, map of Friendship Forest, easy to read text interspersed with line drawings of cute animals and the ugly Boggits, this series follows the formula which has been so successful in the past for the Rainbow magic group, this time drawing on a love of small creatures rather than fairies.
Sue Keane