Seven months among mermaids and devils and sprites

[sovay]

My niece dropped a handful of maple keys into a small pool of tea-colored water dappled brightly with leaves in a hollow of the grass and said something about fairy skates. I have since learned that she has been building fairy houses out of twigs etc. with the nearer set of twins. Her personal mythos appears to be expanding.

Does anyone have recommendations for fairy books or media that might appeal to an almost eight-year-old who likes dragons, unicorns, selkies, and mermaids but does not just sit down and read her way through the complete bibliography of Katharine Briggs? My immediate instinct was to show her FairyTale: A True Story (1997), because I was reminded of a scene in it, but she may be slightly too young for it yet. She already has my copy of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Seasons (1988), but otherwise I got such fairies as I had in childhood almost entirely from books of folklore and Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), the first American edition with the Rackham illustrations inherited from my great-grandparents; my mother reminds me that I also read her childhood copy of Kingsley's The Water Babies (1863) because I missed all of the racism and satire and went straight for Mother Carey. We have things like Jane Yolen and Charles Mikolaycak's Tam Lin (1990) and Eric Quayle and Michael Foreman's The Little People's Pageant of Cornish Legends (1986) lying around the house and she probably would enjoy Alan Lee and Brian Froud's Faeries (1978) if I could get my copy out of storage. She has the tolerance for eerie images of a child who grew up annually watching The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), but I can't always tell what she will find narratively scary.

I have done little with fairy themes in my own work: a couple of recurring motifs. It would not have been shocking for changelings to be important to me, but I fastened onto other kinds of nonhumanness instead.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

"Lumberjanes and Wings of Fire," said the nearly 11yo across the room, who has not really read many good-quality fairy stories. "Oh! Our Castle by the Sea," which is apparently by Lucy Strange--I don't know it but it sounds potentially thematic; it's in Reason's classroom library this year.

ETA Also, Chris Colfer's Land of Stories and Roshani Choksi's Aru Shah, says the child who has very little experience in offering recs that pertain to the request parameters but insists that I pass those on as "almost related."

[sovay]

says the child who has very little experience in offering recs that pertain to the request parameters but insists that I pass those on as "almost related."

Tell her thank you all the same! I recognize Lumberjanes out of these titles and nothing else.

[troisoiseaux]

Does anyone have recommendations for fairy books or media that might appeal to an almost eight-year-old who likes dragons, unicorns, selkies, and mermaids but does not just sit down and read her way through the complete bibliography of Katharine Briggs?

I have fond memories of Emily Rodda's Fairy Realm series! I think I've mentioned the Emily Windsnap series by Liz Kessler before, for mermaids. Also, the Peter Pan spin-off Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine was one of my favorites growing up— it has fairies AND mermaids AND a dragon.

...this is what I can think of off the top of my head; I will probably remember more as soon as I hit post.

[troisoiseaux]

I did, in fact, remember that around your niece's age I devoured the Rainbow Magic series, which was one of those sprawling, pseudonymous Scholastic outputs. Similarly, the Tales from Pixie Hollow series. Not exactly in my top tier of recommendations - that's definitely the Gail Carson Levine one and the Fairy Realm series - but they're books for 8 year olds who like fairies.

[sovay]

Also, the Peter Pan spin-off Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine was one of my favorites growing up— it has fairies AND mermaids AND a dragon.

You know, I have no idea if my niece has any experience of Peter Pan, but if it's not required knowledge, the trifecta sounds very promising.

...this is what I can think of off the top of my head; I will probably remember more as soon as I hit post.

That is the way of hitting post, like leaving a room.

[sholio]

Do you think it's fairies specifically, or might she enjoy any books about tiny people having adventures and building little houses, such as the Borrowers and Littles books and cartoons? I loved that kind of thing when I was her age (and, uh, still), although I mostly only had my own imagination for it since I didn't have access to the above books, but I remember we had a book of fairy tales that included Thumbelina, which I loved, and also the Danny Dunn book in which they were shrunk down to near-microscopic size. If you think your niece would like that sort of thing, I bet rachelmanija has more recs, since it's something she also likes.

(Also, I had to look up what maple keys are! I never heard that before.)

[sovay]

Do you think it's fairies specifically, or might she enjoy any books about tiny people having adventures and building little houses, such as the Borrowers and Littles books and cartoons?

I don't know! I have only heard her talking about fairies, but I have not tried reading her Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine just to see what happens. I shall interrogate the question further when I see her next and I appreciate you thinking to disambiguate!

(The Borrowers Afield and The Borrowers Afloat were my favorites of the Norton books. I have no memory of reading any of The Littles, but it seems statistically impossible I didn't encounter at least one.)

(Also, I had to look up what maple keys are! I never heard that before.)

I was about to guess it was a regionalism when spatch told me he'd never heard the term before, so I have no idea where I learned it. It's also used for the winged seeds of ash trees.

[serafaery]

oohhhh, the Littles. There was something so special about those characters for me.

Is Maleficent too scary for her? I was a tender sheltered 8 year old so it would have been a bit terrifying, for me, at that age, but most kids these days seem emotionally tougher than I was. The story is poorly attended to but the general concepts behind the fae are cute and the visuals are spectacular.

"Faeries" would be worth digging out, methinks. I started with Brian Froud's Good Faeries/Bad Faeries, it's still my all-time favorite. Brian's art awakened something in me that has stayed with me all my life. <3

[troisoiseaux]

Do you think it's fairies specifically, or might she enjoy any books about tiny people having adventures and building little houses, such as the Borrowers and Littles books and cartoons?

Ann Martin's The Doll People and sequels also have similar vibes!

[selkie]

a) Oh, dear, oh, dear dear dear

b) What about The Borrowers? Clever and little-people-centric. I don't actually know much about fairies per se except for the Froud/Lee book. I'm realizing I must have gotten all my fairy/fair folk lore from my English governess, the way I got the rules for interacting with lung from my Chinese governess.

[sovay]

Oh, dear, oh, dear dear dear

I will keep you appraised of the mushroom content of our backyard, yes.

What about The Borrowers? Clever and little-people-centric.

Between you and sholio reminding me of the existence of these books, I am thinking it's worth a shot; it's not like we don't have at least two of them downstairs. Does anyone have a line on whether the 2010 Ghibli movie was any good?

I'm realizing I must have gotten all my fairy/fair folk lore from my English governess, the way I got the rules for interacting with lung from my Chinese governess.

You know that's not a sentence most people in this century can say!

[pengwern]

Your niece sounds like a wonderful person \o/

The series I might rec was Catherine Valente's "Girl who ...." series which seems aimed at being gentle with its reader in a way that would have worked on me when I was smaller, but on the other hand it seems slightly much for an eight year old? Going off of myself, I'd probably peg it for age ten-ish. (The Fox's Tower?)

I also read Water Babies and Peter Pan at eight and having no cultural context for the former was. a trip. I have no idea what happened to this day _@

[sovay]

Your niece sounds like a wonderful person

I really like her!

Going off of myself, I'd probably peg it for age ten-ish.

I suspect I will err on the side of waiting a couple of years for material that skews older unless it looks otherwise ideally tailored for her (or she reacts cheerfully to something I would have considered nightmare fuel at her age, which I am actually confident has already happened: I had idiosyncratic nightmare fuel), but I appreciate the recommendations nonetheless!

I also read Water Babies and Peter Pan at eight and having no cultural context for the former was. a trip. I have no idea what happened to this day

That is entirely legit. I don't even know how much having the cultural context would help with that book. Everything I can recollect about it suggests that it ricochets so hard between its assorted registers—there you are reading a fairy-story with just some occasional random prejudice against the Irish and all of a sudden you're in the middle of a slapfight between the author and Aldous Huxley—that I don't see how anyone read it without hurting themselves.

[asakiyume]

I really loved Eloise Jarvis McGraw's The Moorchild. It's authentically a story of faery but also a story of family and love and finding your place. It's better than this or other descriptions let out--images stayed with me always (Saaski chasing a swarm of bees for her human father)--and phrases from it stuck with our family.

[sovay]

It's better than this or other descriptions let out--images stayed with me always (Saaski chasing a swarm of bees for her human father)--and phrases from it stuck with our family.

I read it when it came out, and I can remember that I liked it (I can remember Saaski's Folk name), but not much more. What phrases became part of your family's language?

[watervole]

I remember reading many of Andrew Lang's collections of traditional fairy stories when I was young.

They're out of copyright now, and on Project Gutenberg.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=andrew+lang&submit_search=Go%21

[sovay]

I remember reading many of Andrew Lang's collections of traditional fairy stories when I was young.

We have several in the house! I can't remember if I read the entire spectrum, although I would certainly have tried to. I think she may be interested specifically in fairies rather than fairy tales generally, but I will certainly keep them in mind.

[luzula]

My seven-year-old niece loves the Irish "Song of the Sea" movie! And so did I when I watched it with her. It has selkies and is just a great movie in general, with lovely animation.

She also loves these incredibly formulaic series of books where two girls have adventures with glittery fairies. From an adult perspective I find them repetitive and boring, but hey, I'm not the audience.

[sovay]

My seven-year-old niece loves the Irish "Song of the Sea" movie! And so did I when I watched it with her. It has selkies and is just a great movie in general, with lovely animation.

It's on the list! I was going to show it to her just for the selkies, but you're right that it has all the other sídhe in it. Perhaps I shall bump it slightly ahead of The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), which was her unbirthday present.

From an adult perspective I find them repetitive and boring, but hey, I'm not the audience.

You are the second recommendation for this series for this age group, so I shall steel myself and check them out.

[anna_wing]

Russian Fairy Tales - the Everyman Children's Classics edition with the Ivan Bilibin illustrations?

[sovay]

Russian Fairy Tales - the Everyman Children's Classics edition with the Ivan Bilibin illustrations?

We might have a copy with his illustrations! I certainly encountered them in childhood. I'll check. I know we have a quite old book of Russian folktales belonging to my mother, whence the story of Cat Ivanovitch.

[moon_custafer]

There’s The Five Jars AKA “M.R. James tries his hand at writing a fairy story for his goddaughter” that I found a while back on Project Gutenberg. I thought the ending was a trifle anticlimactic, but it might not have bothered me so much as an eight-year-old, and everything up to that was pretty good.

[sovay]

I thought the ending was a trifle anticlimactic, but it might not have bothered me so much as an eight-year-old, and everything up to that was pretty good.

I will read it! Thanks.

[konstantya]

The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks was a favorite of mine from around that age, and I still have fond memories of it. Haven't reread it since I was about 13-14, though, so it's hard to say how well it holds up today. Still might be worth a shot?

Also, as far as films go, there's always FernGully? It's EXTREMELY early-90s in terms of fashions and messaging, but it also has Tim Curry voicing (what else?) a weirdly sexy villain, pfft.

[sovay]

The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks was a favorite of mine from around that age, and I still have fond memories of it.

This entire comment is a blast from the past, since I have not read The Fairy Rebel since middle school—at which time I also remember liking it—and FernGully turned out to be the source of an otherwise inexplicable piece of animation I had encountered on video at a friend's house, which was, of course, Tim Curry performing "Toxic Love." Thank you for both reminders!

[movingfinger]

Would the Tiffany Aching books be too much of a stretch? At least one has a key plot point with fairies.

[sovay]

Would the Tiffany Aching books be too much of a stretch? At least one has a key plot point with fairies.

I think they might be slightly out of her range at present, but I will definitely file them for the future.

[choco_frosh]

Would she love or hate Dragonbreath: When Fairies Go Bad?

[sovay]

Would she love or hate Dragonbreath: When Fairies Go Bad?

I'll read it and find out!

[rushthatspeaks]

Seconding The Fairy Rebel, and adding that the Psammead is, in fact, a sand fairy.

[sovay]

Seconding The Fairy Rebel, and adding that the Psammead is, in fact, a sand fairy.

It totally is, thank you. Love.

[minoanmiss]

"World Tales : The Extraordinary Coincidence of Stories Told in All Times, in All Places " by Idries Shah expanded my world when I was around that age. It does have a couple of potentially scary illustrations depending on the edition.

[sovay]

"World Tales : The Extraordinary Coincidence of Stories Told in All Times, in All Places " by Idries Shah expanded my world when I was around that age.

We have that book in the house! I grew up on it and its illustrations. I loved it because I knew versions of some of its stories already and others were entirely new to me.

[genarti]

skygiants will be better able to speak about The Dragon of the Lost Sea series by Laurence Yep -- I've read it and enjoyed it, but only the once, whereas she imprinted on it as a child and her love runs much deeper. The main character is a dragon, however, and the other main character is a human boy, but there are also lots of other supernatural creatures and otherwise magical people running around, because it's drawing heavily on Chinese mythology. There's enough scary stuff that I suspect this is more of a book for when she's older, but might be a good option in a couple of years; I'm bad at guessing target ages for books, though.

Obviously there's Peter Pan. I can't remember when I first read it -- I have vague memories of reading it for the first time, because I remember my delight at the illustrations and certain turns of phrase in a very specific looking-at-this-page-in-this-edition way, but also can't really remember not having read it -- but I suspect it must have been around age eight or so. Whether that's the usual age to be interested in it, I cannot say.

I love Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede enormously. It's a four-book series, and to my mind the first is the best, the second is fun, and the third and fourth have fun parts but are weaker (and maybe also scarier for a kid, though that's very idiosyncratic anyway).

Edited to add: And Oz, of course! I imprinted on the Oz books at a very young age (there's a story about my younger brother first discovering the joy of the word NO when three-year-old me was trying to make him be Toto for the umpteenth time), and read a bunch of them with great delight. There are some unfortunate moments of YIKES racism to look out for here and there, but otherwise they're great, especially at the age where "a kid like you bounces around having surreal one-chapter-long adventures within a greater Quest" is a perfect story structure for your attention span.

[sovay]

There's enough scary stuff that I suspect this is more of a book for when she's older, but might be a good option in a couple of years; I'm bad at guessing target ages for books, though.

I am also bad at guessing target ages, which is one of the reasons for this post, the other being that as a child I read far more fiction with dragons, mermaids, and selkies in it than I did fiction with fairies. I am currently saving Dragon of the Lost Sea and its sequels for when she's older on account of all the numinous nightmare fuel, especially in the second half of the quartet, but I have been trying to think if there's any Yep that she is the right age for, so please loop skygiants in on this conversation! My niece's reading skills are progressing at a much more normal pace than mine, which is a major factor in the target age problem.

Obviously there's Peter Pan.

I need to find out if she's ever read or seen it! I can remember reading the play for the first time; I can't remember at what age I encountered the novel or any of the film versions that would have existed in my childhood. It's a children's classic, so age eight doesn't seem unreasonable to me. If I am going to try her on a film version, however, it will be the 2003 one. It has Jason Isaacs and a significant decrease in racism from either Disney or Mary Martin.

It's a four-book series, and to my mind the first is the best, the second is fun, and the third and fourth have fun parts but are weaker (and maybe also scarier for a kid, though that's very idiosyncratic anyway).

The first is the best and while it is not the reason I learned Latin, it is unironically the reason I learned to make cherries jubilee. I actually read the books in chronological order, meaning I was slightly confused when the revised edition of Talking to Dragons came out when I was in high school and did not exactly match my memories of the edition I had read from the Cambridge Public Library in elementary school.

(there's a story about my younger brother first discovering the joy of the word NO when three-year-old me was trying to make him be Toto for the umpteenth time)

Aw.

There are some unfortunate moments of YIKES racism to look out for here and there, but otherwise they're great, especially at the age where "a kid like you bounces around having surreal one-chapter-long adventures within a greater Quest" is a perfect story structure for your attention span.

That is an excellent structural point! I read my way through all of the Baum and Thompson Oz books in the Cambridge Public Library in elementary school (this phrase recurs through the history of my childhood reading for the simple reason that although we lived in Arlington, Cambridge was our home library, I assume because their science fiction collection was better), some to permanent effect and some I couldn't identify now from the titles, although I suspect that they might turn out to be in archival storage in my brain if I looked at them again. Random fragments turn up in conversation every now and then, like the cold-blooded vegetable people who are solid all the way through if you slice them, L. Frank Baum's imagination had a fascinating relationship to physicality.

[thanate]

My 8yo is enjoying (on her own) the Thea Stilton/Thea Sisters special edition books-- Thea Stilton in general is silly but friendly globe-trotting, mystery-solving anthro mouse friends, with lots of pictures and occasional brightly colored words in the text, which helps my child track lines, and so she has been cheerfully reading them all on her own. The Special Edition books are slightly longer with elaborate staging and a secret society to set up adventures in alternate magical worlds based off of various fairy mythologies. (also readily available for cheap from better world books) Also a note of warning: I do *not* recommend the various Geronimo Stilton series as they tend to be much more mean-spirited.

On a similar front, Ursula Vernon's Hamster Princess series is lovely fairytale retellings with copious illustrations that are good for reading aloud or for readers of only moderate comfort with text blocks. Much more intellectually satisfying than the Thea Stilton ones also.

[sovay]

My 8yo is enjoying (on her own) the Thea Stilton/Thea Sisters special edition books-- Thea Stilton in general is silly but friendly globe-trotting, mystery-solving anthro mouse friends, with lots of pictures and occasional brightly colored words in the text, which helps my child track lines, and so she has been cheerfully reading them all on her own.

Ursula Vernon has been on my radar for years thanks to choco_frosh, but I'm not familiar with these books at all! Thank you for the introduction.

[lokifan]

I haven't read Holly Black's Spiderwick Chronicles but I've heard good things, and the main character is 9 which suggests to me she's the right age. (Black does YA fairy stuff too, so don't get her those!)

[sovay]

I haven't read Holly Black's Spiderwick Chronicles but I've heard good things, and the main character is 9 which suggests to me she's the right age.

Thank you! I read Black's Tithe (2002) and Valiant (2005) when they came out, but had missed that she had branched into children's fiction!