Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286490 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-24
• 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

Believe in Magic
Something about this book is like old-timey children's books like Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz, but the storyline is very original. The characters and even character types are complete individuals and unfamiliar to us. I found myself feeling both comfortable and surprised at the same time while reading this. This book is cleverly done but something I liken to classic in style with a good quality of writing and storytelling. I believe this is something parents can feel good about their kids reading and a book they can even enjoy themselves. The illustrations are also lovely and classic in style.

In this first adventure, Beth/Marigold discovers she has a fairy spirit and sets out on an adventure with her friends to recover the Feather of Hope, the source of all hope on Earth, from gremlins. This is a fun story full of wonder and magical surprises that nicely sets the stage for upcoming fairy missions. However, the characters are not just magical, they are also real human beings, so readers can identify with them. I enjoyed Beth/Marigold's journey of discovery, and I loved Aunt Evelyn. She is such a colorful character. As a teacher and parent, I recommend this for children of all ages, including grown-up ones because I believe we are never too old for magic or fairy tales.

My Family Enjoyed This
I have two little ones and we read this aloud before bedtime. We were all caught up in the magic and are looking forward to reading it again. I recommed this for anyone who likes traditional children's stories. It is traditional but also very imaginative. Good job and we look forward to reading more fairy stories. I am going to pass this on to my nieces and nephew to read too.

Fantastic Fairy Tale, Great Bedtime Reading
Many children's fantasy books these days blend real with fantasy. The difference in this one is that I believe it all could be real. Reasonable explanations are given for everything making the blend of fantasy and real seamless. The book has a high `adorable' factor also with charming characters and a helpful dachshund.

We read this as a bedtime story. Along with reading this again, we will be moving on with the further adventures of these remarkable characters. The `troubles' the fairies have with the gremlins in this book are not scary enough to cause nightmares but they did keep us on the edge of our seats and pillows so that we wanted to read more.

When I look for quality reading to expose my children to, I seek stories just like this that are imaginative, safe, and make us wonder and question. "Marigold and the Feather of Hope" had all of these things. We were also immersed in nature and were introduced to other fun characters like gnomes and brownies. My children and I recommend this book highly. (Read to ages 3-6. 7-11 should be able to handle this level.)