What do ballerinas, fashion journalists, space travellers, dragons, robots and cake monsters have in common? They all star 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 translated into Maltese by Loranne Vella, co-author of the bestselling Il-Fiddien series. The stories tell wondrous tales of mystery, fantasy, investigation, space travel and whodunits, and are crisp and contemporary as they introduce genres and themes that are not commonly found in children's literature in Maltese.

They also subtly tackle themes such as bullying, adapting to change, illnesses, friendships, and environment awareness.

The books in this series are graded across three levels of reading difficulty. The first level, for children aged 7+, is L-ewwel pass, and the books include: Se jkollna robot? Le grazzi, Kosmos Express 2: Il-Pjaneta Pprojbita and Lisa u l-Kejkovoru.

The second level for children aged 8+, 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 9 upwards, is Pass ta' ġgant: 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 find the scarcity of readers at their level as an obstacle.

 "Parents had voiced 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," Chris Gruppetta, Merlin Publishers director, said.  

"Even children who are not that relaxed with Maltese will feel enjoy reading them, and will actually look forward to more," he said.

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