Hey everyone,
How are you all doing? I'm fine thanks, you? I was thinking today about how much I used to love Rainbow Magic. And after CoolStar posted the pages of Becky the Best Friend Fairy and the Storybook Fairies, I realised "this series is never gonna end". Which isn't a bad thing! But it's amazing how long childhood memory things can go on for. So to celebrate 4 days, 5 months and 12 years since Ruby was published, I'm going to review all the changes and history of this series. I will also state the obvious and include facts most people know.
I spent a long time thinking and planning this blog, and I'll try my best to not insert personal opinions. There are many other blogs I've written which do that, and I don't think this should be one of them. But if I do, I won't be too brutal.
(2022 note: In the 7 years since writing this blog, I've written so many others which I might link to because they're more detailed)
Authors[]
Everyone old enough knows that Daisy Meadows is a group of authors. As of 2022, we've counted 13 authors who have written under the Daisy Meadows names at least once.
Sue Bentley and Linda Chapman always seem to get grouped in with Sue Mongredien and Narinder Dhami as the original authors, when they only wrote 6 and 3 books whereas the other two ended up writing for 9 and 11 years, respectively.
In 2009, Rachel Elliot wrote her first fairy book, Mia the Bridesmaid Fairy, only writing specials until she wrote her first series book for the Princess Fairies. Since 2014, she's been the sole UK writer of Rainbow Magic apart from two books in the Endangered Animals Fairies. Whether the quality of writing has changed because of this, I can't judge.
Cover design[]
Cover designs are the most important things for books and especially Rainbow Magic, since many readers enjoy the appearance and names of the fairies. The covers have gone under giant changes since the start.
1. They start off with plain colours and nice fairy dust and stars around the fairy. Here in Ruby the Red Fairy, you can see the background resembles a slightly cloudy blue sky. As the series continues up to the Twilight Fairies, the background resembles something to do with the series. For example, in the Jewel Fairies, the background looks like a shiny piece of jewel or something like that.
2. The colours of the background start to blend a bit with different shades that match the colour scheme. Ava the Sunset Fairy's cover resembles a lovely sunset and this is the first time that the fairy dust is arranged in a special way — a ring. There is also fading as the colour reaches the edges of the books. You can see that the rainbow on the bottom corner is the same as Ruby's, which is nice because at least they're keeping something original.
3. In Jessie the Lyrics Fairy's cover, you can see a mix of at least 3 colours with additional white spots of fairy dust. The white glow in the middle is more visible and there are faint stars around the fairy that puts the focus on her.
4. Mae the Panda Fairy's cover is the first to feature a faint star shaped (or flower shaped) glow in the middle. There are also many more stars and paw prints, not just surrounding only the fairy but the whole cover.
5. And next, Elle the Thumbelina Fairy. I think it looks much more busy and occupied than the others. It has way more stars and white fairy magic spots.
6. Finally, Lisa the Jelly Bean Fairy. This is the biggest change ever. The cover has been completely redesigned. It's less busy and the foily stars and fairy dust are no longer sparkly, but just printed onto the cover (however on the specials, they are foily). It's pretty plain with little colour gradients and blending. The biggest changes are the lack of rainbows. The rainbows in the top left corner and the bottom right have disappeared. This used to literally be the series' trademark but now it's gone. The logo which used to be mirror-like rainbow coloured lettering has been replaced with an actual rainbow and cloud logo. The curly font has gone and been replaced by a more normal one. The side of the book is much different too. For more information, please read my blog on comparing the older style to the newer style. It's way more detailed than this summary.
Illustrations[]
These are the things which are the reason why I loved the series in the first place. I had a whole blog about this but deleted it as I thought my commentary wasn't needed so here are all the pictures from that blog.
And this slideshow is of the girls' outfits through the series. I have sifted through all series available to iBooks and my wooden bookshelf and I've picked out 1 image from each series which mark the changes of how the illustrations have changed. Click on the picture to go to the book where it came from. Georgie Ripper stopped doing the front cover fairies at the end of the Sporty fairies and she stopped drawing the insides at Flora the Fancy Dress Fairy. Nowadays, many different illustrators take on the challenge of imitating the original style, which basically the dot eyes, 'c' shaped nose and 'j' shaped mouth. Some illustrators managed to imitate the original style pretty well, and others' natural styles have slipped through. They are all quite different though, you'll probably have your own favourite style.
Content and language[]
After revisiting the Rainbow Fairies 15 years since I last read them, I could tell the authors made more of an effort to build a fairy world with lore and proper introductions to characters. This was because they were the first series, they probably didn't expect to be writing 200+ more 17 years on. Since then, less of an effort has been made to keep continuity (Tippington and Wetherbury are constantly switched around by mistake) and it's more about getting a story written. When they do introduce lore (in Annie the Detective Fairy, and Jack Frost's siblings), it works. I wish they did this more though, and I'd say the Secret Kingdom books are an example of good world-building Orchard can actually do.
As the series went on, I found the girls and the fairies just get more stupid. Maybe I'm saying that because I'm an adult now and you can read between the lines, but they really are verging on the edge of stupidity, with a large dash of naivety. One moment that stood out to me was in Meghan the Wedding Sparkle Fairy where the girls overhear Jack Frost scheming to his goblins. They ask him why he's got an engagement ring, him literally saying "I've STOLEN- uh I mean got this ring". They let him disappear before turning to each other and saying "I bet he's stolen that ring". I think this blog by Slimey737 really sums it up. It's been 20 years and Rachel and Kirsty are getting worse at recognising Jack Frost as a problem. I know children's books have to be simple and understandable, but this is borderline patronising.
When I read a fairy book, the girls speak in the author's voice. They don't really sound like 9-year-old girls. Sue Mongredien seemed to insert more slang (extremely mild) and casual language such as "cool, huh?" and "awesome". Narinder Dhami wrote one of the girls saying "I think we ought to take a picture of ourselves", I don't know any young person who would think to phrase something with 'ought' in it, but never mind.
New main characters[]
For the 20th anniversary, they're introducing 2 new main characters, Gracie and Khadijah. I appreciate they're trying to revitalise the series, maybe two decades late but better late than never.(I hate that saying.) I won't be sticking around to buy any of those books, but I hope they give these new girls actual personalities. Because I'm a pessimist, I expect they won't and they'll just be 2 more characters to blurt exposition and share blank-slate dialogue. However I’m interested to see where Grace and Khadijah live, if they ALL have to meet up from their 4 separate towns all the time, or if fairy-saving responsibilities will be shared among 2 girls at a time. I’d rather they expand on their current characters than add even more soulless characters to a shallow universe but I feel it's too late for that so at least they're showing intention to switch things up?
Subject matters[]
The series began with the fairies in charge of everyday aspects of life: colours, weather, days of the week, the environment.
As it progressed, fairies began to be in charge of subcultures and hobbies such as princesses, performing arts, fashion, sports. You kind of had to be interested in this stuff to want to read the books. Throughout the 10s they had a focus on British royalty.
Now, they are focussing on popular trends and items: squishies, loom bands, a YouTuber, slime, mermicorns, boy bands, fidget toys, bubble tea.
And even more recently, they've begun to get political with Jacinda the Peace Fairy who's based on the New Zealand prime minister of the same name. I can't remember for sure but after the Christchurch shooting, she made a big deal about the word "peace", and that's how I think she got turned into a fairy. We had Greta the Earth Fairy who's based on the activist of the same name, about saving the planet again. Brianna the Bee Fairy about saving the bees. The Festival Fairies, who are in charge of religious festivals around the world. We also have Maryam the Nurse Fairy, in response to the UK's sudden realisation that yeah nurses and key workers ARE important especially during a literal pandemic, who would've thought. From these examples, you can tell the subject matters are getting even more expansive and attempting to become more educational. If they become too preachy, they will not be fun to read: instead of a nice little bedtime story, children will be getting a lecture.
At the same time as all of this, they're redoing old ideas, like the Birthday Party Fairies. We already have 8 fairies which do ALL of that. And you can't call it a year until Rainbow Magic releases another animal or sports series.
Advertising[]
Every book has a page at the end advertising the next series which will follow. Before, the pictures of the upcoming book covers were only in black and white. For a while, they wrote the titles of the upcoming fairies on a scroll, and then eventually introduced the book covers. There were also checklists saying "do you have these books?" so when you had it, you could tick it off. They don't do that nowadays because there's such a huge list of fairies. During Georgie Ripper's time, there was an additional illustration of all fairies of one series at the back. That was awesome — I really loved those pictures.
In later books they removed the giant gallery of fairies on the insides of the covers: on the front page is only the Rainbow Fairies then on the back page is only the newest series. The slogan for Rainbow Magic seems to be Find a Fairy with your name since it's written everywhere. It used to be Unlock the Magic Within but I don't see it anymore. That really says something about the priorities of the publishers going on here.
Online branding[]
From online descriptions, Rainbow Magic revels in the fact that the fairies are collectables ("Don’t miss the rest of the Festival Fairies series"), they have a wide variety of names ("Do YOU have a Rainbow Magic fairy? Find a fairy with your name at [website] and collect all the books in the range.") and that they're "the no. 1 bestselling series for girls aged 5 and up."
Since their website rebranding, they've been trying to connect all the Orchard Books series together by linking all the series' websites together and constantly writing in descriptions: "If you like Rainbow Magic, check out Daisy Meadows’ other series: Magic Animal Friends and Unicorn Magic!" If they stopped making the literal selling point for all these new series 'written by the author of RaiNboW MaGiC!!!' I'd feel less bitter about every new series that 'Daisy Meadows' creates. I bet most of the authors of the other series don't even write for Rainbow Magic, and if so then who what is 'Daisy Meadows'? It's a brand.
Clothing[]
This is a big progression in Rainbow Magic. Since style changes as we go through years, so have the fairies' style. I mentioned in my "the end (again?)" blog that the designees use Next catalogues to find outfits that would appeal to 8 year olds (source: a Telegraph article) and this new method has really changed things.
Before, the fairies' clothes were more fairy-like, less human. For example, Sky the Blue Fairy's curly crown and Fern the Green Fairy's leafy outfit with curly elf shoes. In the middle of the series, I found the outfits were more human-like, such as Zoe the Skating Fairy's and Zara the Starlight Fairy's. Fairies also begin to have unnaturally coloured hair: either dip-dyed a nice pink or blonde, colourful strands or full on white/pink hair.
I'm gonna quote DaniellaDaisy who wrote on my last blog.
"I miss the old illustrations and costumes worn by the fairies...instead of the new 'fashionable' clothes ie. compare the likes of Sky and Willow to Savannah and Alison...dressing a little bit 'inappropriately'"
I find the later fairies' outfits are so flipping fashionable I almost admire them for their sense of style, like something a teen would wear, not a child. Here is my pick of the fairies whose outfits look like something I've seen with people my age (¡not 5+ year olds!).
idk about you but as an 8 year old, I wore hoodies, cargo pants or tracksuits and shirts with patterns or decoration on. Not a Jack Wills farmer coat-cropped shirt-high waisted leggings combo. Definitely not gauzy chiffon cardigans and a golden playsuit.
The fairies outfits used to relate to their jobs and sometimes they still do as the Festival Fairies are dressed up in their cultural style, fairies representing jobs are dressed up as them. But earlier fairies used to be dressed in simpler clothes like block-shaped skirt or dress. They also had stripy tights which is something I can definitely seeing only a young person wearing. I don't know how the current readers of rainbow magic relate to fairies dressed more stylishly for them but go off I guess.
Names[]
Fairies began with a mix of common names in the UK (Ruby, Heather, Abigail, Evie) and some exotic fairy-like names (Saffron, Sky, Crystal). They were mostly names you could find in a top 100 girls name list on some baby names site.
Later on, they began to use some celebrity names like Demi, Adele, Miley, Rochelle, Ariana. And in recent times, they've begun to use some Asian names like Fatima, Zainab, Maryam. They still haven't done some common girls names yet they're making new fairies with extremely similar names with different spelling (Megan-Meghan, Elisha-Alesha, Sara-Sarah-Zara).
But anyway, jobs are getting longer. "Story-writing". "Jewellery-making". "Star-spotter". Where did all these hyphens come from??!?
Celebrities[]
Unless there's a fairy referencing a celebrity I don't know, the first fairy that seems to be based on a celebrity is Cheryl the Christmas Tree Fairy based on Cheryl (Cole). If we're talking about pop culture references, then Lucy the Diamond Fairy referencing the Beatles song. If Rainbow Magic's pop culture references carried on in this parody way (like with Ella McCauley and Poppy Fields), I'd've loved it. Unfortunately it went the other way - we've got a load of fairies based on celebrities. Since Greta the Earth Fairy, they've been putting disclaimers about not being officially associated with the respective person. We on the wiki first noticed it in Layne the Surfing Fairy with Layne Beachley (whose name they misspell too). that was smoothly done
Diversity[]
Rainbow Magic has always been diverse with a mix of black, white and tanned fairies. Lately, they've been making some blatantly Asian fairies which I appreciate.
They're also incorporating disabilities in which I have mixed feelings about. So far we've had a fairy in a wheelchair and a hearing impaired fairy, an amputee fairy, a Down syndrome fairy, maybe an ADHD fairy? Who knows what's coming next.
Final words[]
And so that's the end. It was pretty long, I apologise. I hope I explained most of the changes of the franchise and its history of how things used to be.
Please read the mentioned blogs if you have time and are still interested in this irrelevant stuff. And if you're interested reading a giant analysis about book series of this type, I have another blog just for that. Have a good day!