Winx Club is a story about various girls, including one human, who find out they can become fairies with special powers. They attend a special school for good fairies while there is also a school for fairies who wish to misuse their power.
The main five good fairies are Bloom, Techna, Musa, Stella and Flora, Bloom being the fairy from Earth. One of the first really good things about the show is a part of the lyrics to the theme song.
Close your eyes
And open your heart
Believe in yourself
That's how it starts
Dreams will come true
Just wait and see
Cause the magic's in you
and the magic's in me
It's obvious that this is going to be one of the types of shows that will emphasize people finding strength from within themselves and that anyone can accomplish potentially great things. That is a really good type of message to get across to young people.
Two cards from the Winx Club card game
Hidden Secrets
This is another book in the Winx series. This is a fairly serious book in which Bloom has some doubts about her ability to do what she needs to do as a fairy. There's one theme about a girl in the Witches School who is not really evil at all; another about Brandon, Bloom's would-be boyfriend, acting somewhat strange; and a third about the three main evil witches trying to steal Bloom's powers.
I think having the words in print actually makes what is going on seem a little darker than watching the same story unfold in an animated format. In any case, this is a good story.
Secret Powers
This is the first book in a series of Winx books, and it parallels the first episode. Bloom comes to the aid of a fairy and ends up finding out she has potential to use magic. Her parents allow her to attend the Althea School for Fairies (which, interestingly enough, is mis-spelled on the back cover.)
There she meets her roommates, her teachers, the evil witches from the school for witches, and the boys from the school for heroes.
Bloom's talents get challenged and she's finally able to realize that she does have magical abilities and can become a fairy.
There are a couple of objections I have, though. One: the witches are evil, matching the stereotype of witches. Why do all the witches have to be evil? Second, the school for heroes is school for only boys. So this makes it appear that girls (1) can't be heroes, and (2) if they many of the girls who have magical abilities are evil witches, but no boys are presented as being evil. It's sort of a sexist approach and I think some other approach might have been better.
Dragon Fire
This is a “TeleNovel,” which is a book which is based on a TV episode and is told with images and words from that episode. In this story, Bloom is taking a survival test, but has no idea that the witches of Cloud Tower have sabotaged the test.
Their purpose is to capture a sample of Bloom's Dragon Fire power, and they manage to do that. Still, things don't go as planned for the witches, and Bloom manages to pass her test.
It makes an interesting book to look at, but the animated form is better.
Winx Cards
tinfront, tinback
winxcards 1-8
Reviews of the first five episodes
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