Fia & the Imp

My 5-year-old daughter has loved fairies and stories about them since she was a toddler, and now that she is beginning to read, I've been looking for fairy stories with more content, versus those that are short in length. She still needed my help with this book, especially with longer words, but we both enjoyed the story of "Fia and the Imp". I actually ordered this together with Fairy Wingswhich is the prequel to this book, but since this arrived fist, we went ahead and read it. Fia is a unique fairy as she does not have wings, yet she is gentle,kind, and compassionate, traits not shared by her sister Violet. Fia loves to help the woodkins, which are wee folk who live in the woods, and Violet derides Fia for helping these folk who in Violet's eyes are unworthy of fairies' attention or friendship. Fia is engaged to the fairy prince, Kip, and after discussing with Kip, she decides to invite the woodkins to their engagement party. When Violet hears of this, she is mortified and upset and determines to intervene. Fia later hears of a crisis amongst the woodkins and rushes off to help, but ends up in trouble herself. A mysterious creature, an imp comes along to render help but warns in advance that he extracts payment for his help. Will Fia be able to get herself out of her predicament without getting deeper into trouble? I love the fact that this is a well-structured story with interesting characters - there is even a map of the world the author has created at the beginning of the book. The author and illustrator happen to be a married couple, and their collaboration yields a wonderful reading experience. I just wish there were more books in the series! Highly recommended for those who love fairies and fairy stories. Another book (more of an anthology of fairy stories and poems) by Lauren Mills is The Book of Little Folk: Faery Stories and Poems from Around the World.

I came on tonight looking specifically for more books like this one - and was amazed this one had no reviews! My daughter still reads this regularly [when she's not reading harry potter for the zillionth time] and it has long been a favorite. So much so that I thought she'd enjoy another by the author - she adores the illustrations and the story - since she was about 6!