Free The Magic Book series, book 1 by Elsa Bridger

the damp morning haze – it was going to be a
perfect day for the seaside, and probably warm enough to even swim
in the usually cold English sea.
    She turned from
the window to see what the time was, her clock said 5am – still
really early, well not to her, but her parents would think so!
She’d have to amuse herself until someone else woke up. Her gaze
fell onto a brightly coloured shoulder bag which hung from a
clothes hook on the wall next to a full length mirror. She felt a
flutter of excitement, knowing that it contained a very special
gift from the fairies of Serenia; a magic book! She decided she’d
settle herself back into bed and imagine she was there once more,
making up her own adventure, until it was time to get up.

    The family set
off early in the car to the coastal town of Eastbourne to make the
most of the day. The girls always wanted to do everything; skate,
cycle, scoot and have a picnic on the beach – not forgetting the
ice cream! They always made their way from the furthest car park,
to Eastbourne Pier by whatever mode of transport took their fancy –
usually roller blading, as they did today, and enjoyed a cooling
ice cream there before heading back to the car park. Their father
insisted he needed one too, ‘to maintain his energy,’ he had
said!

    Once back at
the car, they changed their transport to bicycles and cycled back
to the ramp park – which was about half way to the pier. It was
exciting to watch the other children scale the ramps on scooters,
bikes and skateboards, doing tricks that defied gravity. Much to
their mother’s relief, Sophie and Felicity were happy to watch and
not join in.
    By the time
they had returned to the car for the second time, all four of them
were more than ready for lunch on the beach.
    Just half an
hour later, with tummies satisfyingly full and already a good deal
of ‘beans’ burnt off, they all felt a little more relaxed.
    Felicity and
Sophie left their parents chatting about this, that and the other –
all very mundane stuff Felicity thought; like what they were going
to do next to their garden back home - and crawled into the little
beach tent their dad had put up so they could sit out of the glare
of the sun. They stretched out side by side, and relived their
adventures of the week before at school with the fairies in
Serenia.
    “I never would
have imagined that The Great Oak would have been so special!”
Felicity enthused.
    “Mmm, that was
the best week of my life, meeting REAL fairies - and saving
Serenia!” Sophie agreed.
    “Have you got
The Book with you, Sophie?”
    Queen Tara of
Serenia had given the girls a special book as a gift for saving her
Kingdom. It looked just like an ordinary note book, but they now
knew differently.

    The Queen
herself was a Keeper of the original Book. Her Book was essential
to the wellbeing of Serenia and all who lived there. In turn,
Serenia was directly linked to the human world, so when the girls
had saved Serenia, they had also saved their own home, Earth. One
thing both the Queen’s Book and theirs had in common was that they
had the ability to give life to anything they drew on its pages.
They were to use it very wisely, and only for the purposes of
good.
    The heat was
beginning to build up inside the tiny tent, and they closed their
eyes while they chatted about what they thought the fairies would
be doing now, and asking each other questions like – did fairies go
to the seaside too? Did they have a seaside in fairyland even?
Would they ever have cause to use their Book? Absorbed by their own
musings, they began to doze.
    Felicity
thought she heard a sound and her eyes flickered open. She sat up
and looked outside the tent towards the sea where the sound was
being carried inland on a warm salty breeze. There was something a
little way out in the water. It looked like a girl, but then in an
instant the image was lost behind a bigger wave. She stood up
outside to see more clearly, shielding her eyes