The Night Fairy

When Floury the night fairy's wings meet with demise, her life changes dramatically. As she learns to cope as a day fairy, she observes or befriends many day creatures--spiders, hummingbirds, and giants (people), and she manipulates some to her own ends. When the opportunity arises, will Floury choose to be a night fairy again or remain in the day world? Michal Friedman delineates her narrator roles. As narrator, she speaks matter-of-factly, letting Schlitz's straightforward and bald analysis of Mother Nature and her characters keep the story from being saccharine. In character, Friedman is outstanding--a breezy and thoughtful Floury, a persistent and single-minded Skuggle the squirrel, and a remorseful and earnest Peregrine the bat, for example. Humans have much to learn from the world of nature! A.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

January 4, 2010
All is not well in fairyland, at least for Flory, a young night fairy whose wings were broken during an encounter with a bat. Feeling vulnerable when unable to fly, Flory finds shelter in a wren house and decides to become a day fairy despite her nocturnal bent (“She soon found that her body did not like the day. Her skin liked to be cool and moist, not hot and dry”). In this whimsical and cozy tale, Newbery Medalist Schlitz (Good Masters! Sweet La
dies! Voices from a Medieval Village
) explores what it's like for a tiny winged creature to be grounded. Readers will delight in Flory's resourcefulness in finding food, clothing, and a new form of transportation (on the back of a squirrel), and identify with her brash, childlike personality (“I hate, hate, hate
bats, and I'm always going to hate them”), which softens as she grows compassionate and makes friends. Culminating with Flory's brave act of saving a hummingbird caught in a spider's web, this story reveals how handicaps can be overcome through quick thinking and determination. Full-color art not seen by PW
. Ages 7–11.