Book Review: Magic Faces series by Esi Merleh, illustrated by Abeeha Tariq

Publisher’s description
Heroes of the Pirate Ship
Open the MAGIC face paints and adventure awaits . . .
Pirate ship or robot world, which one will you choose? In each a race to find the prize, will you win or lose?
Austin, Alanna, and wiener dog Ozzy have been transformed into pirates! Their mission is to find a golden treasure chest before their time in this world runs out.
When two very suspicious pirates climb aboard the New Leaf ship and start snooping around, Austin and Alanna know they must help their crewmates. . . .Can they save the ship and complete their mission on time?
Superhero Mega Mission
Open the MAGIC face paints and adventure awaits . . .
Fairy world or superheroes, which one will you choose? In each a race to find the prize, will you win or lose?
Magic face paints have transformed Austin, Alanna, and wiener dog Ozzy into superheroes! When two supervillains swoop into the busy City Museum in a flying machine, they steal a priceless gem, and Austin and Alanna narrowly escape being hit with their Freeze Ray.
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Alanna Storm and Austin Steel must track down the supervillains, return the gem, and save the museum before their time in the superhero world runs out!
Monster Mayhem
Open the MAGIC face paints and adventure awaits . . .
Fairy world or Monster Ball, which one will you choose? In each a race to find the prize, will you win or lose?
Austin, Alanna, and wiener dog Ozzy are going to a Monster Ball! With the help of magic face paints, Austin has been transformed into a werewolf and Alanna has become a vampire. Their mission is to find a crystal ball. But when a pair of evil skeletons steal a witch’s wand, mayhem ensues on the dance floor.
Can Austin and Alanna take back the wand and complete their mission before their time in the monster world runs out?
Amanda’s thoughts
You should go order these right now. The emerging readers/early chapter books sections of most libraries is thankfully starting to look a little more diverse (assuming, of course, that libraries have money to begin to update their collections, which is not always the case). The addition of this series is so welcome. The books themselves are lovely. They’re a nice trim size, they’re full color, and they have small chapters with illustrations on nearly every page. The pacing is just right, the adventures are fun (and include the nice element of racing against a clock), and I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that the twins’ sidekick is a cute little dachshund.
The twins use their aunt’s magical face paint set to go off on different small adventures where they have to retrieve an item and get back home before time runs out. The same villains appear in each story (in story-appropriate costume).
There are just the three in this series so far, but I’d love to see a giant lineup of these books on a shelf. I’ll be bringing these to the elementary school where I work and can’t wait to see them fly off the shelf. A really cute, fun, and necessary new series. Go get these on your order list now!
Review copies courtesy of the publisher
ISBN-13: 9781631638053, 9781631638091, 9781631638138
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Publication date: 01/01/2024
Ages 7-9
Filed under: Book Reviews

About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on BlueSky at @amandamacgregor.bsky.social.
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