''Rainbow Magic'' is a British

children's fiction Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

brand originally created by Working Partners and currently owned by

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

, with some licensing rights held by IoM Media Ventures. It is best known for the children's books published by

Orchard Books Grolier is one of the largest American publishers of general encyclopedias, including ''The Book of Knowledge'' (1910), ''The New Book of Knowledge'' (1966), ''The New Book of Popular Science'' (1972), ''Encyclopedia Americana'' (1945), ''Academ ...

. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors under the collective

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Daisy Meadows, and illustrated by Georgie Ripper and Alison Winfield in several books and uncredited illustrators in the latest books. The series follows the lives of Kirsty Tate, Rachel Walker, Gracie Adebayo and Khadijah Khan and their magical adventures with their

fairy A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

friends. ''Rainbow Magic'' books by Daisy Meadows were the most-borrowed children's books at libraries in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and the second-most borrowed books overall at those libraries, in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The ''Rainbow Magic'' books are issued by Scholastic Inc. in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Some series and individual book titles vary in the Scholastic editions. There are also colored ''Rainbow Magic'' books for younger readers, which are also published by Scholastic. The books are usually six chapters long, and tell one overarching story spanning out over seven books in the earlier series, four books in the later series. Each set of books is based on a theme, such as 'The Sporty Fairies' and 'The Jewel Fairies'. Many of the fairies allude to pop culture celebrities, like Miley Cyrus, Tyra Banks or Adele.

Characters

;Main characters * Rachel Walker * Kirsty Tate * Gracie Adebayo * Khadijah Khan * Jack Frost, king of the goblins * Mr. Walker, Rachel Walker's father * Mrs. Walker, Rachel Walker's mother * Mr. Tate, Kirsty Tate's father * Mrs. Tate, Kirsty Tate's mother * Mum, Gracie Adebayo's 1st mother * Mama, Gracie Adebayo's 2nd mother * Mr. Khan, Khadijah Khan's father * Mrs. Khan, Khadijah Khan's mother * Rafi, Khadijah Khan's brother * Queen Titania, queen of the fairies * King Oberon, king of the fairies * Betram, frog footman

Authors

The ''Rainbow Magic'' books are written and illustrated by a number of authors and illustrators: * Linda Chapman * Narinder Dhami * Rachel Elliot * Sue Bentley * Sue Mongredien * Sarah Levison * Marilyn Kaye * Kristen Earhart * Mandy Archer *

Tracey West Tracey West (born October 1, 1965) is a children's book author who has written for many different licensed series, including ''Pokémon'' and ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Life Tracey West was born and brought up in New Jersey, United States. She ...

* Alison Winfield Each title carries a dedication including a "special thanks" indicating the primary author.

Books

''Rainbow Magic: Return to Rainspell Island''

''Rainbow Magic: Return to Rainspell Island'' is a

straight-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strateg ...

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

movie that was first released in the

on 7 May 2010. It is a British-Japanese co-production that was co-produced by

HIT Entertainment HIT Entertainment Limited (stylised as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sophie Turn ...

and The Answer Studio. It was also released in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

; the film was only recorded in English as its Japanese release has no Japanese vocal track.

References

External links

Rainbow Magic official website

Rainbow Magic Series Homepage at Hachette Children's

Rainbow Magic on Hit Entertainment website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rainbow Magic Book series introduced in 2003 Children's fiction books Series of children's books British children's books Orchard Books books Fictional fairies Children's books about fairies