Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287090 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 52 pages

Synopsis
Beth Parish is an eight-year-old girl blessed with a marigold flower fairy spirit. With her mentor, a monarch butterfly fairy, Marigold learns how to be a fairy, and discovers things like the fairy handbook, the vast variety of fairy wands, how to create fairy lights, the purpose of fairies, what gnomes do, and the three things gremlins are afraid of. She attends fairy circle and meets her new friends - Thistle, Dragonfly, and Firefly. They discover that the brownies, keepers of the Feather of Hope, which is the source of all hope on earth, need their help. Marigold must enlist the aid of her dachshund, Peanut, in a daring mission to rescue the Feather of Hope from a house occupied by dangerous gremlins.

From the Author
The Fairy Chronicles is a series of modern fairy tales full of magical creatures, both good and evil, and heroic characters who participate in dangerous missions to protect nature and fix serious problems. Ideal for all ages, reading levels ages 7 to 12, the stories include a diverse set of fairy characters and a wide variety of other magical creatures such as trolls, brownies, witches, dwarves, gnomes, elves, unicorns, goblins, wizards, dragons, ogres, magic gargoyles, gremlins, demons, nymphs, giants, and many more. Each story has some sort of problem to be solved such as recovering the stolen Shell of Laughter, helping to break an evil curse, solving the mystery of the Magic Snowglobe, rescuing kidnapped bat fairies, trying to locate missing human shadows, or helping a dragon complete a dangerous quest. Characters and readers learn interesting things such as why fairies fear jigsaw puzzles, what the trolls’ favorite foods are, why the flamingo stands on one foot, the reason human beings have a shadow, what the grasshopper uses buttons for, where courage comes from, how hope is spread around the world, and what causes nightmares.

Excerpted from Fairy Chronicles, The: Book One: Marigold and the Feather of Hope by J. Sweet. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from pp. 42-43

The gremlins were more furious than ever. Their sharp teeth gnashed and they jumped even higher to try to reach the fairies. And the hairs in their ears seemed to be snapping with electricity as they shouted, "BLASTED FAIRIES!"

After several minutes, Peanut arrived, panting and growling. He had managed to route the other three gremlins into the living room. The six gremlins seemed to take heart in their numbers for a moment, because they laughed and began a frenzy of jumping and snarling at the fairies, and at Peanut. But Peanut stood his ground. He circled them, herding them toward the back door.

One particularly vicious gremlin started throwing things at the fairies. Dragonfly dodged a book and flew straight at him. She landed on the gremlin’s head and gave his left ear a hard walloping kick that was reminiscent of one of her best soccer moves. The gremlin howled in pain, but was unable to reach her as she quickly zoomed away.

Aunt Evelyn’s voice boomed as she stung another gremlin with her wand. "Out! Out I say! This dachshund is no weakling! And I will stay here all night stinging you if necessary!"

The gremlins snarled and snapped, but Peanut continued to growl and circle. Finally, all six gremlins gave up; and tripping over each other, they flooded out the back door. Aunt Evelyn followed and waited for the sharp, singing voice of Madam Robin to announce, "All clear!" from her post on the back fence.

The fairies landed around Peanut giving him hugs and pats, while he wriggled happily. He sat proudly watching, while the fairies set out to finish their work. Aunt Evelyn returned leading the brownies. Alan, Joel, and Christopher immediately went to Mr. Forrester’s tall bookcase and began to climb. When they reached the third shelf, they pulled out a book. The fairies gathered around to watch. None of them had ever seen the Feather of Hope before.

Customer Reviews

My Daughter's Favourite Book
I read this book to my four-year-old daughter, and she has since become obsessed with it. We continue to read it chapter by chapter, over and over again each night. She runs around the house and back yard pretending to be Marigold and Dragonfly, and she has demanded a peacock feather wand and a fairy handbook. After doing some research on this series, I have discovered that the pages of a fairy handbook appear blank to ordinary people, so it was easy to buy a blank journal and print a label for the cover. Now, she writes in her fairy handbook daily with crayons, usually 3 giant words per page, and draws pictures of butterflies and fairies. Having almost memorized this book, I am looking forward to the day whan she can read it on her own. I recommend Marigold and the Feather of Hope to any parent of a fairy princess with a word of warning - this story can be addictive.

Enjoyable Fairy Tale
Beth is marigold fairy. She attends fairy circle and meets her new friends Dragonfly, Thistle, and Firefly. With help from Beth's dachshund, Peanut, they set out on a mission to rescue the Feather of Hope (the source of all hope on earth) from a house full of nasty gremlins.

This story is highly imaginative and presents a new twist on traditional fairy lore because the fairies are real girls living among us. With an emphasis on respect for nature, tolerance of differences, and helping others, this book has the power to teach as well as entertain. Add in an adorable dog and fun aspects such as the fairies' love for lemon jellybeans, and the gremlins' fear of vacuum cleaners, dachshunds, and stainless steel, and you have a great story to enjoy again and again. Recommended read for all peoples and ages, particularly girls ages 8-14.

"A New Fairy Tale Writer"
Except for Tale of Despereaux and a few "cautionary tales" there aren't very many new fairy tales being written. This is a higher reading level than Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. I would say more along the lines of Rapunzel and Cinderella, two of my kid's favorites. However, this book is more modern. There are some morals worked into the story but nothing directly religious. The young girl heroines are very independent and confident for their ages and are good role models for girls. This book would appeal to younger boys too because of the boy fairy brownies, gremlins, dachshund, and because they will probably admire the strong little girls. The brownies also have an incredibly important job in spreading hope over the entire world. I recommend this book for girls 6-12 and boys 6-10. It would be a good read-aloud book for 3-6 year olds. There is also a strong nature aspect to this book because the fairies protect nature. Good story and my kids and I are looking forward to more in this series. Jas Bertolli