The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies by Ammi-Joan Paquette

This is an interactive, mixed-media book about going out into the garden to find fairies. The author took pictures of someone going for a walk around in their garden with some children and drew in fairies here and there. Each page is a different location and the author talks about different things he or she sees around the garden and how it could be related to fairies. For example there will be a circle of grass and the author will say maybe its a fairy bed, or will find a fairy shoe and leave it on a rock for fairies to find later, or wonder where fairies are. All the while the impish drawn in fairies are hiding or prancing about all over the page. It’s a good book about going out to explore your own garden and find the fairies there. It’s not so much a how to guide as it is someone’s account of a thoughtful walk.

I didn’t personally like the book that much. The photographs the fairies were drawn on reminded me of those farm animal picture books they give you in the second grade at school, stale and boring. The writing too. I don’t mind stories with a simple plot or writing style, but children are brighter than this book gives them credit for. Without the little drawings I wouldn’t have picked this book up, and I don’t think any children would either. I don’t mind the idea of a book supporting an outdoor adventure in search of fairies, but this book is borderline boring. It’s a very slow-paced walk through a garden with simple text and uninteresting pictures. The little sprites are cute, but not enough so as to make up for everything else. I may be taking this to a bit of an extreme, but as a lover of fairies I know that a hunt for fairies can be full of wonder and excitement and mystery, and all of that was lost on me when I read this. It’s ok for a quick glance through, but definitely not a purchase.