** spoiler alert ** 
 This had to be the junkiest ending in children's books. The bad guy gets eaten? Come on! With so much creativity in the first book or so I was waiting for more to come out of this book. 
 They never really explained much to the mother. I also hated that they let the uncle die. For a kids book where everything should be sugary that was a terrible ending. Even I was upset and I'm a good 18 years older then the average reader of this. 
 I hated that they had the bad guy pretend to be the dad then try and kill the brother and sister. That would be scary for a 5/6 year old. 
 I also found the elves pointless. They did nothing in the book, except say "Give us the book" then "Now you brought it keep it we lied the whole time to you we didn't want it". It was like every fictional creature from dwarved, brownies, elves, sprites HAD to be in the book. I think it would have just been okay if it wasn't so forced to find a way for dragons and such to be in this book. 
 I think this book would have been better if I hadn't had to pick up 5 different books and read it. I felt it was the biggest scam in kids books. 
 I also hate that you needed an eye glass to see the creatures yet they capture the mom and all of a sudden she believes. Can she see them? did they spit in her eyes? This is never explained. 
 I would not be recommending this book to kids, because I felt it was too scary and the ending was cheap and not a great way for fantasy to be introduced to kids.