The Night Fairy

by Laura Amy Schlitz, illustrated by Angela Barrett

Candlewick Press. Junior Fiction. Hardback rrp $24.95

Guest Reviewer Christina Miesen

‘Flory was a night fairy. She was born a little before midnight, when the moon was full.’ Flory is less than three months old when her peril begins. A bat damages her beautiful wings and she is no longer able to fly. She decides to become a day fairy.

Set in a garden where a giantess leaves seeds and syrup, Flory is introduced to the daytime world of nature, animals and insects. She begins to understand her fairy powers, and the meaning of friendship.

To me, The Night Fairy is a tale of survival. Flory is in an environment alien to herself, facing dangers and everyday situations without the guidance of other fairies. She begins by manipulating and bribing animals for food and shelter, and ends up by protecting a hummingbird and its eggs from predators.

Flory is brave, bold and resourceful. This book is for those with a love of nature, adventure, and fairies.

Angela Barrett exquisitely illustrates The Night Fairy. One of the joys of turning the pages of this beautiful book is coming across Angela’s full-coloured artwork. Her depiction of Flory and her little garden world are stunning.

http://www.thenightfairy.com/

Christina Miesen is an Australian author with a number of books published. You can check her out at http://www.christinamiesen.com.au/

The Magician’s Elephant

by Kate DiCamillo. Illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

Candlewick Press. Junior. Hardback rrp $24.95

Guest Reviewer - Jo Burnell

This lyrical tale is full of dreams, yet grounded in reality. Peter Augustus Duchene is a young orphan, living with a sick and elderly soldier. Peter longs to know what happened when his mother died in childbirth. Despite declarations that his little sister died with her mother, Peter continues to wonder.

When a fortune teller states that he must follow the elephant to find his baby sister, Peter’s world splinters. All that he thought was true is now false, or is the fortune teller the one who lies? When a magician conjures an elephant instead of a bunch of lilies in the Opera House, Peter begins to believe. Maybe his sister really is alive. It’s not every day that an elephant breaks through the roof of the Opera House.

Yoko Tanaka’s full-page illustrations, inserted at intervals in this short chapter book, add depth to characters and their plight. Large eyes and every imaginable shade of grey demonstrate heartfelt despair, while wistful smiles speak of hope that never dies.

The Magician’s Elephant is a tale of tragic realities and suffering, but it is also a story of promises and possibilities - for those who are brave enough.

‘Magic is always impossible…That is why it is magic.’ So says the one who would know: the magician.
Has everyone gone mad? Perhaps that is the case, as Peter seeks what cannot be. It seems as if anything could happen. Anything at all, when you believe.
http://www.themagicianselephant.com/