Bloom
With Audio Recording
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Doreen Cronin and Caldecott Medal–winning illustrator David Small comes a picture book about how an extraordinary “ordinary” girl can save a kingdom with the help of a mud fairy.
A glass kingdom is no place for a Mud Fairy. Bloom and her mud fairy magic might be able to turn weeds into flowers and spin sand into glass, but the people of the kingdom ceaselessly complain about the trails of dirt and puddles of mud that seem to follow her every step, and finally they cast her out.
But when the glass castle begins to crack, then cracks some more, the King and Queen in a panic search for the long-banished fairy, but they can’t find Bloom anywhere. Desperate to save their home, they send their meekest, most ordinary subject, a girl named Genevievewhose sole task until now has been to polish the Queen’s crystal sugar spoon—to coax any worthy fairy to come and save the kingdom. Genevieve finds Bloom exactly where the king and queen failed to see her, and Bloom knows exactly how to save the kingdom. But it will take the two girls working together, along with a mighty dollop of self-confidence—and some very messy hands—to accomplish the extraordinary.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This smart, subversive fairy tale is set in a kingdom whose palace is made entirely of glass and whose inhabitants scorn dirt and untidiness. The kingdom was once home to a red-haired fairy named Bloom, whose magic could "spin sand into glass, turn weeds into blossoms, and grow a trickle of rainwater into a racing river." But Bloom's heavy steps and muddy footprints drew complaints, and she retired, exasperated, to the forest. Now, the king's beautiful glass castle leaks, and everything else is "held together by tape, glue, and peasants." Small's (Glamourpuss) witty ink-and-wash drawings follow the king and queen as they enter the forest to search for the powerful fairy, but they refuse to believe that Bloom and the bucket of mud she proffers is the creature they seek. They dispatch their sweet servant girl Genevieve to locate her instead. Bloom questions Genevieve closely: "Why would the king and queen send a delicate child... to do something they could not?" she asks. "Because I am ordinary," Genevieve confesses. Outraged that any girl would value herself so lightly, Bloom immediately begins Genevieve's training in "magic" up to their elbows in mud, the two make bricks and build a house. When Genevieve returns to the kingdom armed with new knowledge and spattered with mud, she thunders, "I am here!" Cronin (the Click, Clack, Moo books) juggles thematic elements with grace, mixing fairy-tale parody with maker tale and girl-power story to celebrate mess, chaos, and big plans. When seen up close, Cronin suggests, fairy-tale "magic" might really be no more than the willingness to get one's hands dirty. Ages 4 8.
