February 24, 2024

Sisters 간니 and 닌니 are visiting the library one day, when all of a sudden they're sucked into a book and find themselves in the world of Fantasia. There, they are tasked with finding golden bookmarks that have been scattered across the land. This book tells of their first adventure to Neverland, where they meet Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook, and the Lost Boys.

I raced through the first half of this, as I was enjoying it so much: the story moves quickly, and I love the world of Fantasia - the grand library, magical books, unicorns, mermaids, spaceships that look like strawberry cream cakes... Although when the girls visit Neverland, the pace really seems to slow down, and I found my interest waning. Perhaps it was simply due to being familiar with the story of Peter Pan, so there wasn't the same excitement as there was for the new world of Fantasia.

I'd imagine your enjoyment of the series would depend on how much you like the story that the girls find themselves in - each volume appears to focus on a particular children's book, and if you already know the story it probably won't feel particularly fresh or exciting, even with the new characters.

That being said, there's still a lot to like: the world of Fantasia (still lots to explore there!); the characters' ability to jump into stories is a fun idea; the book is full of lively and colourful illustrations; a couple of comics are included; and information about the featured book and its author appear at the end of the book.

The weaknesses for me are: if you already know the books featured, the story can feel a bit slow and boring (the aim of the series is to get children interested in reading, so this isn't a problem for the target demographic, but probably will be for language learners); it isn't really explained why the evil sorcerer scattered the bookmarks in the first place (I expect this will be explored more as the series progresses); and although the girls' goal throughout the story is to return home, we don't actually see them do that at the end of the book.

Language-wise, this is a fairly straightforward read: the grammar is simple, and the vocabulary on the whole is common, although I find myself looking up definitions fairly regularly. There aren't any particular difficulties, but you will encounter a lot of onomatopoeia - which isn't surprising considering it's a children's book - although you'll understand the meaning from context.

Overall, I did enjoy the story, although I'm not sure if I'll continue the series - I may end up just reading the volumes featuring novels I'm fond of. I think that if you like Disney films, you'll probably enjoy this series, as it shares the same kind of vibes as classic Disney stories.

Gradings:14
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easier than명 바꾸기L27
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similar in difficulty to이상한 과자 가게 전천당 1L20
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similar in difficulty to너의 유니버스L23
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easier than눈 오는 날L23
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easier than바보 동자L22
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easier than꿈에서 만나L29
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harder than딸꾹L21
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