I love any sort of fairytale twist and so this Fairytale Ninja series is fab - well known fairytale characters having ninja adventures which are wrapped up in a short and accessible chapter book story. What is not to love! I love the pace of these stories and the high level of action. Definitely a series I will be recommending.

My first trial of this series since the original showed it still doing what it wants – giving three diverse girls empowering adventures away from their routine life in Hobbleton. One of them, Goldie, is stuck forever making the hotel breakfast porridge. But when a visitor to town, Miss Raven, proves to be a nasty sort, it's only down to the three heroines to snap out of their routine, switch away from their everyday clobber, and put on the special ninja clothes stashed away in the town's ballet school. Needs must when your dad's been turned into a duck, after all!

So Red, Goldie and Snow remain in this world that (a) wants to refer to a lot of fairy tale and magic legend and (b) not bother cramming it all in reverentially (there's a gingerbread man here, but it's very, very much an NPC, to say the least). This does not try and riff off of stories of old, or revisit books we had as children. No, it is after cramming as much kinetic energy and magical action into one short drama, and it succeeds pretty strongly. It's about a modern feistiness that clearly heroines of old must have needed too, and it's about the successful warrior and agent for good being able to be a devout, girly-girly character on the surface. And in doing that without a smidgen of wokeness it's a breath of relieving air – a strong four stars.

This was really cute. Kids who love fairytales with a twist will love this. Fun, full of personality and just really cute.