Backyard Fairies
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Fairies are real, and they're all around us! Award-winning author-illustrator Phoebe Wahl offers a fanciful and beautifully illustrated peek into the hidden world of fairies, sprites, and other magical creatures.
A girl searches for fairies in her backyard and the woods beyond, following little clues and traces of magic. Fairies and other magical creatures can be found on every page, hidden among the flowers, trees and pebbles. But although readers can see them, the girl keeps searching, just one step behind... In the end, it is clear (both to the girl and readers) that there is magic all around, even when it's hidden in plain sight.
Phoebe Wahl takes us deep into the world of fairies, and her vibrant, multi-textured woodland scenes are every bit as enchanting as the creatures therein. A gorgeously illustrated paean to imagination and the natural world.
"Delightful . . . This gently magical outing will appeal not only to longtime lovers of European folklore, but also to fans of the popular "fairy door" phenomenon."--Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Even if a person never sees a fairy, isn't searching for them enough? Wahl (Sonya's Chickens) suggests that the answer is yes, pairing a bewitching poem with folksy mixed-media collages. Working in gouache, pencil, and other materials, she creates a landscape dense with vegetation outside a girl's wood-shingled home, perfect for hiding fairies, sprites, and other tiny beings. "Have you ever found, while out on your own.../ A tiny, magical somebody's home?" she begins, as the rosy-cheeked, freckled girl sprawls in the dirt, peering into a hollow stump. Tucked behind a toadstool, for readers' eyes only, sits an elf, puffing on a bubble pipe. Beyond the luscious, lulling verse, a substantial part of the book's enjoyment comes from seeing what the girl does not. "Where are they?!" she wonders during a midnight excursion; a cutaway reveals a subterranean party in full swing just beneath her feet, where small mythical creatures dance, feast, and cavort in pointy hats and petal gowns. Readers are all but certain to take a closer look at their environs for evidence of magic in their midst. Ages 3 7.)
