Pony Princess

Fairy Ponies #4

by Susanna Davidson, Barbara Bongini (Illustrator)

Explore wonderful stories about a group of fairy ponies and a little girl called Holly, full of magic and adventure!

This highly collectible series includes six books that provide huge girl appear with the irresistible combination of ponies, fairies, and a magical secret world. The Fairy Ponies series is part of the Usborne Reading Programme developed with reading experts at the University of Roehampton.

Genres: Chapter Books

112 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Susanna Davidson also writes as Zanna Davidson.

She joined Usborne Publishing almost straight out of university and has been writing books for them pretty much ever since. She has written about everything from dinosaurs to the Queen to Fairy Ponies and tiny monsters, small enough to fit in your pocket. She is also a mum of two boys and works from home, where she spends most of her time talking to the dog and trying not to eat too much cheese.

Reviews

[Brooke Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 year old daughter loves me to read this series aloud to her. She was more engaged during the first 3 books of this series, but still loves it!

[Cute Rabbit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good.In it Holly returns back to pony island for another adventure in it puck tells that they both have been given a job by the pony queen and the job is looking after princess rosabel the queen’s niece.But they find out that rosabel is kind of stubborn,spoiled and rude.
They take her on a tour but she says mean things about the island after they take her to the castle where they see a cloak left by someone and rosabel says it’s hers then she says she wants to go to the dark forest and she enters even tho puck and Holly say not to then they go tell the pony queen and she is angry because she is in danger by shadow the evil pony.
After they go and try to find the princess and then when they find her she is enchanted and they the take the cloak off and she isn’t and then they get help from some turtles.After they saved the princess from shadow the dress competition happens!

[Mandi with Red Quill Editorial · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute short chapter book for kids about a girl named Holly who enters a world of fairy ponies through a secret entrance. Pony Princess is another addition to the Fairy Ponies series and focuses on Princess Rosabel (the niece of the queen) visiting the kingdom of Pony Island. Through Puck and Holly, this book has a moral lesson of doing the right thing even when it might not sound like fun. I dropped one star because Princess Rosabel doesn't seem to demonstrate any growth through the story arc, but there is a hint that she may be in the next book and perhaps it occurs then.

[Efox · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are trucking through these Fairy Ponies books. This one introduces us to Princess Rosabel - who is kind of insufferable and spoiled - and brings back the bad ponies that were banished in book 3. Seriously wondering about the order of these books as we are reading them in "order" but the stories sure don't flow into each other in the "order" that they were supposedly written in.

Totally held both my kids interest the whole time - though they didn't really get why Princess Rosabel was so mean to Holly and Puck. Also, this time my 6 year old pointed out that most of the ways Holly and Puck save the day is by not listening to Puck's mom, which he thought was kind of a weird part of the story. There's some good vocabulary and it's a good early chapter book for sure, even if the stories are not necessarily my favorite.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zanna Davidson is onto a winning formula with the Fairy Ponies series and Fairy Unicorns series. My daughter and I love the fast-paced, high-stakes action in these books, where a normal, kind-hearted girl earns access to a secret, magical world and has to work with her new friends to defeat the forces of darkness (an evil fairy pony). The beautiful format is the cherry on top: hard cover with a ribbon bookmark and beautiful illustrations, with a different colour scheme in each book!

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took turns reading with my 8 year old granddaughter. I felt it had a broader vocabulary than many books geared for this age group. While there were unfamiliar words that needed to be sounded out and explained they did not bog down the reading or the story. Not sure she could read it on her own though with the new words.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably the least favorite so far, but still a good read aloud for my six year old daughter.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it when they found Princess Lilly and saved her from Shadow. - 6 years old

[Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The turtles were cool. The cotton candy part was funny

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a great series to read with the kids. The turtles were amazing.

[Ben Haskett]

Read in 2019; I read this to my daughters over the course of a week--a chapter or two before bedtime. I keep realizing partway through that I'm reading these way out of order, but I don't care and the girls certainly don't seem to mind. I love that the girls are invested in the characters and know them by name. They know all the bad guys and boo them whenever they show up, and can pick out Puck and Holly by seeing their illustrations that decorate several of the pages. Great, simple stories for young people that involve magic.

[Hillary · Rating 3 out of 5]

We adore this series, however this is our least favorite. A very spoiled pony and the wrong attitude of behavior was a thin line. It showed her in a semi-poor light but not enough for young listeners to grasp (how she behaved and kept behaving set a bad example). I say this meaning, the moral and kindness didn’t shine through - we had to openly discuss why telling only part of a story isn’t telling the truth after the book was completed.

We intentional want to read aloud books with a strong character and moral compass, this one wasn’t at the level of the previous 3.