How to See Fairies

Sylvia Pantaleo is an assistant professor of education specializing in
children’s literature at Queen’s University. She is the co-author of
Learning with Literature in the Canadian Elementary Classroom.

The first section of this book, “How to See Fairies,” is written in
an ABCB rhyming scheme. Van Sandwyk uses a combination of
color-and-black pencil illustrations to complement the text. He writes
about seeing the fairy folk at the dead of night or just before the
dawn. In the second section of the book, “Pocket Guide to the Little
People,” Van Sandwyk uses a narrative format to describe the equipment
needed to identify fairies. He gives hints on how to see fairy folk,
flower fairies, fairy babies, autumn fairies, lamplighter fairies,
feathered fairies, and finger folk.

Appropriately, the endpapers of the book are illustrations of various
types of fairies. The text is imaginative and the muted-color
illustrations effectively create a dusk/dawn atmosphere. However, this
reader wondered about who the intended audience is for the book as well
as the purpose of the text. Not a first-choice purchase.