Pet Power! Twinkle's Fairy Pet Day by Katharine Holabird and Sarah Warbarton

"I HAVE WAITED AND WISHED FOR SUCH A LONG TIME,"

"FOR A SWEET LITTLE PET WHO WILL TRULY BE MINE."

Pippa waved her wand, and with flashes and sparkles a beautiful butterfly appeard. Lulu's magic wand produced a glittery lady-bug. But when Twinkle wished for a pet that could run and play, there was quite a hullabaloo.

"BANG!" "CRASH!" "BOOM!"

Purple smoke poured out of the fireplace, followed by--a little wiggly green dragon who leaped into her arms!

"FIDDLESTICKS," SAID TWINKLE! "I JUST WANTED SOMETHING CUTE AND FLUFFY!"

But Fairy Godmother pooh-poohed her complaint and invited all three of them to the FAIRY PET DAY, promising a party with prizes for all.

But dragons are hard on housekeeping. Her dragon, whom she properly named "Scruffy," was a housewrecker--tracking mud into the house, swiping her Fairy treats, and shredding her best slippers. She tried to teach him to come, and sit, and fetch, but although he was sweet, he always did the opposite of what she told him to do. Twinkle knew she needed some help teaching him to behave like the pet of her dreams.

On Fairy Pet Day, Twinkle bathed Scruffy, sprayed him to smell like a flower, and dressed him up prettily, but on the way to the Pet Fairy party, he splashed muddy water over them both. Twinkle was almost in tears as they arrived for Fairy Pet Day. Winning a magical prize was definitely not in the works for poor Twinkle! Still, she couldn't help loving her silly little Scruffy. He WAS her pet!

"JUST DO YOUR BEST, SCRUFFY," SHE WHISPERED TO HER IMPERFECT PET.

And there was Fairy Magic at Fairy Pet Day for Scruffy. In the Fairy Fetch competition, he outdoes all the others, and his little dragon wings become big and beautiful, glowing with Fairyland colors, in best-selling author, Katharine Holabird's Twinkle's Fairy Pet Day. (Little Simon Books.)

Everyone is amazed, and Scruffy wins the prize for the best-trained pet! Holabird, author of the tremendously popular Angelina Ballerina series, has a new fantasy tale, illustrated by artist Sarah Warburton, and her new character, portrayed with plenty of sparkling pink, seems to be one that her fans will want to read more about!

After all, LOVE goes a long way when training the perfect pet.

Says School Library Journal, "... the two unlikely companions bring out the best in each other.

No Tooth Required? Pete the Cat and the Lost Tooth by James and Kimberly Dean

PETE LOST A TOOTH!
"PUT IT UNDER YOUR PILLOW," HIS MOM SAYS.
"THE TOOTH FAIRY WILL COME!"

And it works! Pete puts the tooth under his pillow, and closes his eyes to sleep--and--COOL!--The Tooth Fairy appears, big blue eyes, azure tutu, wand, and wings and all.

Not only does she have his coin, but she has a job for him. She's too busy to get around to all the lost teeth before morning, so she deputizes Pete as a tooth fairy temp employee. He gets big yellow wings and a Tooth Fairy T-shirt--and his very own list of tooth-losers--all of them his friends.

Pete's first customer is Callie Cat, a sleeping beauty if he's ever seen one, and Pete takes the tooth and leaves a coin without waking her. Pete flutters on to Alligator's window and finds him snoring away, with one big bicuspid under his pillow.

CAREFUL! IT'S SHARP!

Carefully putting a coin under Alligator's pillow, Pete flies on to the last name on his list--Gus the Platypus, his favorite percussionist. But there's a problem. There is no tooth under Gus the Platypus' pillow. Pete searches all around, but there is not a tooth anywhere!

DOES PETE PANIC? NOPE!

There's only one thing to do. Pete bends the rules a little bit. He wakes Gus up and asks him where he's put his lost tooth. Gus puzzles at Pete's costume, but opening his mouth wide, he points out what should be obvious.

"PLATYPUSES DO NOT HAVE TEETH!"

Pete gets it that Gus is just trying to get in on the tooth-fairy fun, so Pete puts the customary coin under his pillow and returns to rendezvous with a very tired Tooth Fairy, ready for her shift to end.

It's No Problem and fist bumps all around, in James and Kimberly Dean's Pete the Cat and the Lost Tooth (My First I Can Read) (HarperCollins). Author-illustrator Dean is the author of over 100 picture books and beginner reader books with their can-do theme and laid-back philosophy of life, and this one is just right for a readership who are busy shedding first teeth. The two Deans always provide a few nuggets of knowledge along with their easy reading practice, not to mention the positive view of life which comes with the fun.

For yet another Tooth Fairy tale, pair this one with one of Adam Wallace's How-To series, How to Catch the Tooth Fairy. (See review here).

Going for the Green! Esme' and the Emerald Fairy: The Search for the Sparkle Stone by Sara Clese and Lara Ede

Across the bridge almost hidden from sight,
stood a small museum with flags of green and white.

The museum kept all kind of things, from books to giant bones.
But best and most amazing were its sparkling precious stones!

The museum's curators, the Emerald Fairy and shy little Esme', are charged with keeping the gemstones sparkling clean. Little Esme' is too modest to admit that her wand's magic has the power to keep the precious stones sparkling, but when the wand stops working, the precious stones lose their bright glimmer. What to do?

Esme' and the Fairy call in their friends. Susie Fairy and Daphne appear and the search for the one book that holds the secret to the Mystery of the Sparkling Stone. Will Esme' find the courage to release her wand from the great White Cave?

All that glitters is not gold, and in Sara Clese's and Lane Ede's Esme the Emerald Fairy and the Search for the Sparkle Stone (Sparkle Town Fairies) (Make Believe Ideas, 2017), shy Esme' has the courage and all the right stuff to complete their mission, and the museum is soon aglow again in this entry into the Sparkle Town Fairies series. For kids who like more than a bit of bling in their picture books, there's plenty of sparkle and glitter from a giant emerald and two-way movable sequins on the cover and sprinkled inside this dazzling toy-and-movable book. Like their heroine Esme', young readers may need sunglasses as they read this one!

Other books in this glitzy series include Sparkle Town Fairies Rosie the Ruby Fairy, Daphne the Diamond Fairy and the Catwalk Catastrophe (Sparkle Town Fairies), and Sparkle Town Fairies Alice the Amber Fairy.

School Days: Fairy's First Day of School by Bridget Heos

Mom's got an early morning surprise for little Fairy.

"You'll be starting school soon, Fairy.

You're probably wondering what to expect."

Mom pours each of them some herbal tea from her acorn teapot and sits down to brief her little fairy on what to expect from her first day of school.

"You'll put on your backpack and fly to school, either with your family or on the schoolbird."

The schoolbird sounds a lot like Mother Goose, which promises to be a fun way to flit to school. Little Fairy's mother tells her that a very kind teacher will greet her with a shower of fairy dust, have hang her backpack with the others on a dandelion leaf, and come along to meet the others in her class.

"Flutter your wings to say hello," she says.

Her teacher will sit the class down in a crisscross berry sauce circle and reminds them to raise their wands if they have a question. There will be center time for learning about magic spells and classifying collected baby teeth for the tooth fairy, and they will take turns being the door holder, the line leader, and the pet helper. At lunch, politely take a seat on your toadstool, Teacher will tell them. And after rest time in the napping tree, there is story time--with everyone's favorite fairy tales.

There are so many fun things to do that before you know it, Little Fairy, it will be time to pack up for home, Mom assures her, in Bridget Heos' forthcoming Fairy's First Day of School (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018). With the help of artist Sara Not's blackline drawings, done in bright pastel palette suitable for a fairy tale version of the preschool/primary day, author Heos captures the special magic of the first day of school, with promises of new friends and happy schooldays to come and something wondrous to tell Mom and Dad:

"Once upon a time, I had my first day of school!"

Clap If You Believe!: A Fairy Friend by Sue Fliess

THERE ARE FAIRIES IN THE SKY
ALL AROUND YOU, FAIRIES FLY.
FLIT AND FLUTTER, TUMBLING, TWIRLING,
WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, FAIRIES SWIRLING.

The vision of a miniature world all around us, one not easy to see unless you are in the know--this is the flight of fancy that has through the ages drawn us to find the fairy world.

A girl sits down in a cozy porch rocker with an enticing book all about fairies and how to find them. With gauzy pictures of tiny fairies floating on the backs of dragonflies, the book draws her into the quest for a fairy friend.

YOU MUST KNOW JUST WHERE TO LOOK,
SEARCH EVERY NICHE AND NOOK.

At first the girl and her bulldog see nothing of the fairies partially concealed in the illustrations, hiding in the forks of trees and riding the breeze inside curled-up leaves. But as she leafs through the book, she finds directions for how to lure her own fairy friend--by building a fairy house.

BUILD A FAIRY HOUSE WITH TWIGS AND BLOOMS.
DECORATE HER FAIRY ROOMS.

The stuff of fairy decor naturally runs to the soft and fleecy--feathers, thistle fluff, willow fuzz--and a resident fairy will not say no to a tiny swing made from a half of a walnut shell, or a bath from an upturned mushroom cup. And don't forget a tiny helping of fresh flower petal stew!

Sue Fliess' A Fairy Friend (Henry Holt and Company, 2016) sets a respectfully nostalgic mood in this how-to story for finding your own fairy friend. The delicate artwork of Claire Keane takes the lead, with old-fashioned pen-and-ink drawings washed with hues of lavender and teal and dainty feminine fairies who look as if they might be friends of Disney's Tinkerbell. From Edmund Spenser's faeries to Cinderella's fairy godmother, tales of the fairy world that might be all around us have been staples of literature. An enticing flight of fancy indeed, for those who can believe....

GENTLY OFFER YOUR HAND...
NAME YOUR FAIRY AND SHE'LL LAND.