The Day the Fairies Went on Strike!

Marjorie E. Coutts was a writer living in Bowen Island, B.C.

This is a picture book, so it should appeal initially because of the illustrations. In this case they are well drawn, but the colour is garish and unattractive — which would discourage purchase. The slight story is geared to the concerns of a city child, female, involved in the ugliness and activities of present-day inner-city existence. Parents reading this tale of a child and her longing for a cherry tree and its delicious fruit, and for fairies who can grant wishes, would nevertheless disapprove of the frequent tasteless, colloquial wording, such as: “Hester sure was mad that the pirates were hogging most of the cherries.” This type of wording, and the representation of the ragged TV-inspired fairies may have been chosen by the authors, Maureen FitzGerald, an anthropologist, and Linda Briskin, a teacher of women’s studies and English, as suitable and characteristic for our little feminist heroine. But need being a feminist exclude a concern with correct language usage, or with the enjoyment of lively colour or the sparkle of true imagination?