What do ballerinas, fashion journalists, space travellers, dragons, robots and cake monsters have in common? They are all starring in the new range of children’s novels in Maltese and are the perfect characters to make summer holiday reading exciting for children aged between seven and 11.

With their colourful content, fun illustrations on every page, and a large font size to make reading an enjoyable experience, children are immediately drawn to this series of books.

Originally written in French by some of the top children’s authors in France, these titles have been adapted into Maltese by Loranne Vella, co-author of the bestselling Il-Fiddien series.

The stories tell wondrous tales of mystery, fantasy, investigation, space travelling and whodunits.

They are crisp and contemporary as they introduce genres and themes that are not commonly found in Maltese children’s literature.

All the while, they also subtly tackle themes such as bullying, adapting to change, illnesses, friendships and environmental awareness.

The books in this series are graded across three levels of reading difficulty. The first level, aimed at children aged seven plus, is L-Ewwel Pass and the books in the level are Se Jkollna Robot? Le Grazzi, Kosmos Express 2: Il-Pjaneta Pprojbita and Lisa u l-Kejkovoru.

The second level, aimed at children aged eight plus, is Pass Pass with It-Tifel-Dragun 2: Il-Ktieb il-Kbir tal-Lejl, L-Istilistini: L-Ewwel Sfilata ta’ Kate and Sara Ballerina: L-Ewwel Passi fuq il-Palk.

The third level in the series, for children aged nine upwards, is Pass ta’ Ġgant with L-Investigazzjonijiet ta’ Arkimeda Lapsi 2: Misteru fil-Kamp tal-Indjani, Monumenti Misterjużi: L-Enigma tal-Kavallier and It-Tfal tal-Labirint.

These books are new additions – some are actually sequels – to the Rumanzini series successfully introduced a couple of years ago.

The titles appeal to children who need to read more in order to familiarise themselves with Maltese, yet often find the scarcity of readers at their level as an obstacle.

Merlin Publishers director Chris Gruppetta said: “Parents had voiced with us their concern about the lack of reading material in Maltese for children who have progressed beyond picture books and are looking for independent reading, and we thought the Rumanzini were just perfect for that.

“Even children who are not that at ease with Maltese will feel comfortable reading them and will actually look forward to more,” he said.

All the books in the series are available from bookstores or online from www.merlinpublishers.com.

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