Fairy

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

This is the story of a “one-of-a-kind” fairy who rides a Harley,
pops wheelies when the moon is full, brandishes a leather wand, and
wears her long hair in braids as she looks after the magical needs of
the children on her street.

Victoria has a loose tooth and is thrilled about an impending visit
from the tooth fairy. Her father, Mr. Stubbs, who also rides a Harley,
is highly skeptical about this magical creature. The fairy decides to
teach Mr. Stubbs a lesson. Using her magic, she has Mr. Stubbs pull a
box from a secret place and retrieve the shiny silver dollar that he
received from the tooth fairy when he lost his first tooth. When
Victoria’s tooth falls out at school, she cannot wait to get home to
tell her father her friends’ stories about visits from the tooth
fairy. Later that night, the fairy transforms Mr. Stubbs into a tooth
fairy and has him trade his silver dollar for Victoria’s small tooth.
The next morning Victoria declares, “You see? There really is a tooth
fairy.” When Victoria announces that she is excited about the
approaching visit by the Easter Bunny, Mr. Stubbs does not “utter a
word.”

While the whimsical story presents a problem that children will
recognize—the loss of the first tooth—the storyline is not strong
enough to hold the reader’s attention and interest without the
illustrations. The motivation for the Harley-riding fairy is unclear, as
is the need for Mr. Stubbs to be depicted as a “biker.” Dean
Griffiths’s detailed illustrations appropriately reflect and enhance
characterization and events. Not a first-choice purchase.