Fairy Bell (and Fizz)

Title: Fairy Bell Sisters: Sylva and the Fairy Ball

Author: Margaret McNamara

Illustrator: Julia Denos

Kiddo is on a Peter Pan kick.  We’re reading bits of Peter Pan every night before bed.  She’s watching the Disney movie as I type this.  A few months back she watched the ballet.

Not just Peter Pan, though.  She loves ALL things Neverland.  Jake & the Neverland Pirates is a huge favorite and she’s dying for the lego set.  I’m making her wait until her birthday.  Speaking of birthdays, the child wants a Neverland themed party.  She will dress as Tinker Bell, she says, someone must be Peter Pan.  Everyone else has to be a lost boy.  If we could get one of the grandfathers or uncles to be Captain Hook I think the girl might die of happiness on the spot.  She loves Captain Hook.  Also, she has an unusual amount of adoration for crocodiles and clocks.

So, naturally, when she saw a book at the library with a fairy she squealed, “Tinka Bell.”  Her “er” sounds don’t always makes it all the way out of her mouth.  She’s only three.  I explained that the book was about Tinker Bell’s little sisters.  She was blinded by fairy wings and shoved them in the library bag.

Warning to other Moms: THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT TINKER BELL.

Or Neverland.

My daughter had to remind me of this on nearly every page.  I cannot express enough how disappointed she was…

Until the TROLLS arrived.

Apparently we are a troll-loving family.  Both me and my daughter loved The Three Billy Goats Gruff (my grandmother read it to me when I spent the night at her house and kiddo has her own updated version we read all the time).

She is fascinated by The Hobbit.  Mostly, I think, for the troll scene.  She has seen the live action movie, but she relishes the 1970′s cartoon.

And of course – we adore Fizz & Peppers.  I adore Fizz & Peppers and I think she loves it a bit because I do – but it is heaven.  And full of trolls.

Ultimately, she enjoyed the book, but decided she didn’t want to read the rest of the series yet.  At the end of the Fairy Bell ball story there is a blueberry birthday cake – and a blueberry fairy cake recipe.  So, naturally, we baked.  Oddly enough, we had freshly picked blueberries in our fridge… picked by M.G. King (the author of Fizz & Peppers!) and delivered to our house!

Another odd coincidence for this reading adventure… take a look at these chapters:

The books have nothing in common.  And somehow managed to have everything in common.  It was one of those reading experiences where we could not sit down and read one without thinking of the other. Note: Chapter three of the Fairy Bell Sisters book ends on that page.  On the next page begins chapter four.

Til the next reading adventure…