Firefly and the Quest of the Black Squirrel (The Fairy Chronicles)

In this installment of The Fairy Chronicles, several new fairies are introduced. The same fairy team of the first three books is present, except Dragonfly on vacation with family, but Periwinkle is added to the mix. She is a Native American fairy with special skills coinciding with her culture, to add to her fairy gift of sun tolerance to fit with pink periwinkles. I have been buying these for my granddaughter. Since I only see her about once a month, I get to read her books before gifting them to her. She agrees with me that Firefly and the Black Squirrel is wonderful. When the fairies go to their Fairy Circle, more fairies are introduced. We can't wait for their adventures. We took a drive to a park last week and along the way we saw what we deemed as purple meadows and white meadows. They weren't the same as the ones in the book, but we still had fun imagining that there were fairies flitting about them on a fun adventure. We really liked this book.

Firefly and the Quest of the Black Squirrel has a fantastic assortment of characters: dwarf, black squirrel, goblin, twenty plus assorted fairies with six being the main participants in this fairy mission, bees, hornets, birds, brownies, the magical Black Stag, the Shadow of Death, and a magical creature known as a squit. Each of these characters is given a colorful personality, even the bees and hornets, to add to the intricate kaleidoscope. The squit, Firecracker, who is a furry, fluffy creature about the size of a basketball when dry (and a baseball when wet) has a wonderful personality. The fact that he might not even be real adds a certain charm to this book, making it extremely memorable. My two children loved this story, and I am looking forward to reading it again and sharing it with other family and friends. I think this book would appeal to a multitude of readers, and I do recommend it along with the others in this series. The books contain activities and nature facts in the backs as a bonus.

This book series kept my kids busy this summer. They read the first two books at least three times each. I was so glad when the next two came out so I could get them to read more books. I have screened the books carefully, and I am not only satisfied, I am delighted. This is terrific -- nothing but good stuff here. The girls in the books even get along with each other. The nature and garden parts really add to the quality of the experience. "Firefly and the Quest of the Black Squirrel" is my favorite of the first four in this series, so I am doing the review for it. The girls (who are also the fairies) go camping. They are on their Spring Break and expect to just have a fun time. Then they are sent on an important mission. They meet interesting characters along the way and help solve a pretty big problem. The story flow is excellent, and we are pulled along on the mission with the fairies. I could almost hear what they were saying and I felt as though I was breathing the clean fresh air. My daughters tell me that they like the fun and excitement. I think they are drawn to this book and the series not only because the books are interesting but because they can identify with the characters. However the girls in the books are not all the same even though they have things in common. One of the characters is getting adopted, another is homeschooled, one of the leaders of a former fairy mission is on a trip with her family, another girl gets into trouble for abusing her fairy power. This adds nice variety and perfectly parallels the variety of fairy spirits with their different gifts and wands. I think my girls also feel empowered when reading these books. It makes them feel like they can make a difference in the world. The books are labeled for seven and up. I recommend this series specifically for those in third and fourth grade. The length might be a tad short for a high level fourth grader, but the content is very appropriate and will keep them reading. First and second graders would also enjoy the books but might need a little help with the language. Because the books do not contain anything questionable, they would be appropriate to read aloud to even younger children. I highly recommend this book and the series it belong to as a Breath of Fresh Air. Teresa Scott-Wright

I was somewhat skeptical about this series at first, but my daughter received this book as a gift and really liked it. She is now walking around the house saying "pop" to change into a fairy and asking if anyone has seen her wand. We have started reading the online books at the website. Some of them are funny and some of them are serious. A few of the stories are somewhere in the middle like this one. My daughter and I both like the many different characters. This book has good variety in that way since it is a story with a dwarf, a black squirrel, a squitt, goblins, a black stag, and brownies. The Forgotten Forest sounds like a beautiful and tranquil place. It really carried us away in the end. We also have a collection of gnomes (our favorite magical earth spirits) and are especially pleased when fantasy writers give gnomes attention and credit for their work. There is mention of gnomes in this book.

I had no idea that there really are black squirrels and black deer. Once again, the writer of this series has mixed realism with fantasy for this story. The information about Blue Moons is also interesting. When my daughter and I Googled Blue Moons, we found out even more about them and are now watching for them. We also searched for black squirrels and have enjoyed the online pics of these little critters. We are wondering what the other colors in this story might mean. "Purple Meadow, Red Squit, White Meadow, Pink Periwinkle." Is this just a variety of colors or do they mean something to the story? We have found a few things hidden in some of the other Fairy Chronicles books so this has made us curious. This series is taking a very interesting shape so far. The fairy camping trip described in this book, and the discussion about growing white asparagus, were also interesting. This story has a nice nature theme and it is our favorite so far of this series.