![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fairies In Blue Jeans
I know I've posted about this before, but this time I managed to find a picture of the NICE version of the cover! Hell, maybe I posted with a picture of this cover before, but who cares!
When Tiki, a fairy, is "earthed" on Jan's human foot, both are terrified. But because Jan, unlike most adults, believes in fairies, the two become friends. When Tiki learns that Jan is sad because she and her husband Charles can't have children, the flighty fairy performs a bit of forbidden magic. Her act provokes the wrath of the wicked Fairy Queen, but Jan's daughter Bindi grows up to be a healthy eight-year-old, receiving magic presents every year from Tiki. Then the Fairy Queen exacts her revenge on the family, and it is only through the combined powers of humans and fairies that the evil ruler is defeated forever. Told in the grand fashion of early 20th century fairy tales, Banks's story is a comfortable, old-fashioned read (with numerous witty asides) about a naughty but courageous fairy and her loving mortal friends.
And a review that describes it even better...
Don't be fooled by the slim length and simple, straightforward telling of this story-- this is a treat for adults as well as for children. The simplicity of the storytelling reminds me of the Mary Poppins books-- there's more here than meets the eye.
I especially love that the story begins by telling us that if we go to school in London we might meet a little girl called Bindi, with an unusual history. That immediately makes this world of magic "real!"
Unusually for a children's book, the story begins by having us empathize with Jan, a sad bride and former child actress whose career was cut short by a leg injury, and who wants more than anything else to have a child. She is out in the garden weeping over her loneliness when she is startled by Tiki, a fairy who has been "earthed" (i.e., touched a human) when she couldn't follow her friend Wiljic through Jan's toes. Wiljic is mischievous and knew that Tiki was too fat to get through!
Tiki is wearing jeans under her frilly fairy skirt, although it's forbidden by the fairy queen-- "we love her"-- Tiki says loudly-- and fascinated by Jan's loneliness and tears. The lovely insouciance of all of the fairies-- when we eventually meet Wiljic it's too discover he longs for savory foods like boiled egg and is sick of nectar and nasturtium-- is just one of the many details that lend reality to this story. We also know right away that there is trouble in fairyland if the queen makes her subjects so nervous.
Tiki arranges for Jan to have a fairy baby (start a pregancy with a little help) and gets herself and Wiljic in trouble. Meanwhile, Bindi is a nearly perfect human child, with just a small tuft of blue hair... but the fairy queen has not forgotten the disobediance that led to her birth!
I know that my copy is very 'well loved' (old), but I would NEVER replace it with the icky hard cover version. The cover's just so...not pretty! Tiki is the world's COOLEST fairy. See that little fairy buzzing around by Bindi's head, the one with the yellow top? That's Tikki! And that green chap in red is the marvelous Wiljic (I don't think that's how his name is actually spelled, but too lazy to look it up right now).
Reason for this post? I guess I'm upset that school starts tomorrow and I don't WANNA be a junior, so I'm talking about a little kid's book (though I don't know how 'little kiddish' it is, as it didn't make sense to me until I read it again in sixth grade). A little randomly, if I have a daughter, I think I might name her Bindi. In fairy speak (according to the book) it means something like 'special' or 'expensive'
When Tiki, a fairy, is "earthed" on Jan's human foot, both are terrified. But because Jan, unlike most adults, believes in fairies, the two become friends. When Tiki learns that Jan is sad because she and her husband Charles can't have children, the flighty fairy performs a bit of forbidden magic. Her act provokes the wrath of the wicked Fairy Queen, but Jan's daughter Bindi grows up to be a healthy eight-year-old, receiving magic presents every year from Tiki. Then the Fairy Queen exacts her revenge on the family, and it is only through the combined powers of humans and fairies that the evil ruler is defeated forever. Told in the grand fashion of early 20th century fairy tales, Banks's story is a comfortable, old-fashioned read (with numerous witty asides) about a naughty but courageous fairy and her loving mortal friends.
And a review that describes it even better...
Don't be fooled by the slim length and simple, straightforward telling of this story-- this is a treat for adults as well as for children. The simplicity of the storytelling reminds me of the Mary Poppins books-- there's more here than meets the eye.
I especially love that the story begins by telling us that if we go to school in London we might meet a little girl called Bindi, with an unusual history. That immediately makes this world of magic "real!"
Unusually for a children's book, the story begins by having us empathize with Jan, a sad bride and former child actress whose career was cut short by a leg injury, and who wants more than anything else to have a child. She is out in the garden weeping over her loneliness when she is startled by Tiki, a fairy who has been "earthed" (i.e., touched a human) when she couldn't follow her friend Wiljic through Jan's toes. Wiljic is mischievous and knew that Tiki was too fat to get through!
Tiki is wearing jeans under her frilly fairy skirt, although it's forbidden by the fairy queen-- "we love her"-- Tiki says loudly-- and fascinated by Jan's loneliness and tears. The lovely insouciance of all of the fairies-- when we eventually meet Wiljic it's too discover he longs for savory foods like boiled egg and is sick of nectar and nasturtium-- is just one of the many details that lend reality to this story. We also know right away that there is trouble in fairyland if the queen makes her subjects so nervous.
Tiki arranges for Jan to have a fairy baby (start a pregancy with a little help) and gets herself and Wiljic in trouble. Meanwhile, Bindi is a nearly perfect human child, with just a small tuft of blue hair... but the fairy queen has not forgotten the disobediance that led to her birth!
I know that my copy is very 'well loved' (old), but I would NEVER replace it with the icky hard cover version. The cover's just so...not pretty! Tiki is the world's COOLEST fairy. See that little fairy buzzing around by Bindi's head, the one with the yellow top? That's Tikki! And that green chap in red is the marvelous Wiljic (I don't think that's how his name is actually spelled, but too lazy to look it up right now).
Reason for this post? I guess I'm upset that school starts tomorrow and I don't WANNA be a junior, so I'm talking about a little kid's book (though I don't know how 'little kiddish' it is, as it didn't make sense to me until I read it again in sixth grade). A little randomly, if I have a daughter, I think I might name her Bindi. In fairy speak (according to the book) it means something like 'special' or 'expensive'
no subject
Interesting tidbit. : D
no subject
no subject
no subject