A Natural History of Fairies

by Emily Hawkins, Jessica Roux (Illustrator)

Overview

This enchantingly illustrated natural history of fairies, compiled in the 1920s by the botanist Professor Elsie Arbour for her niece, is now unveiled for readers of today.

Featuring a gold foil–embossed cloth cover, a ribbon marker, and sprayed gold edges, this gorgeous volume is filled with colorful sketches and precise notes detailing the secret life of fairies and their important role in the natural world.

Inside, you will discover the wide and wonderful array of different species of fairies around the globe and explore where and how they live. Delight in this hidden world as you learn all about:

• The anatomy of a fairy (Land-based fairies have individual, separated toes, just as humans do. However, many species of water fairies have webbed feet.)
• The life cycle of a fairy (When walking in the heather, be careful of the tiny flutterpillar of the Wicklow Fairy, decked out in greens and purples.)
• Clever fairy camouflage (Reed fairies living in wetlands usually wear striped clothes to hide among the tall reeds.)
• Fairies around the world (Meet the Lily Hopper of sub-Saharan Africa, the Queen Fairy of New Guinea, the Penguin Fairy of the Antarctic, and many more.)
• Fairy habitats (Fairies make their homes in all types of places: woodlands, jungles, deserts, the Poles, and even human homes.)

Concluding with a reminder that we must protect the endangered habitats of fairies, and all other creatures too, this is a book to be treasured for a lifetime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780711261938
Publisher:	Frances Lincoln Children's Books
Publication date:	09/22/2020
Series:	Folklore Field Guides
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
File size:	55 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

Once a children’s book editor, Emily Hawkins is now a full-time author. Her work has been featured on the New York Times bestseller list (Oceanology, 2009) as well as winning the Children’s Travel Book of the Year Award (Atlas of Animal Adventures, 2016). Along with her background in children’s non-fiction Emily has a strong interest in myth, folklore and storytelling. In 2020 she wrote A Natural History of Fairies, which has been translated into twelve languages, selling more than 100,000 copies worldwide. Emily holds a first-class English degree from Nottingham University, and lives in Winchester, UK.

Jessica Roux is a Nashville-based illustrator and plant and animal enthusiast. She loves exploring in her own backyard and being surrounded by an abundance of nature. Using subdued colors and rhythmic shapes, she renders flora, fauna, food, and many other things with intricate detail reminiscent of old world beauty. Her first book with Frances Lincoln was A Natural History of Fairies (September 2020).

Table of Contents

THE SECRET LIFE OF FAIRIES
WHAT ARE FAIRIES
THE ANATOMY OF A FAIRY
FAIRY WINGS
THE LIFE CYCLE OF A FAIRY
CLEVER CAMOUFLAGE
FAIRIES OF THE WORLD
FAIRY HABITATS
MEADOW AND GARDEN FAIRIES
WOODLAND FAIRIES
MOUNTAIN AND HILL FAIRIES
FRESHWATER FAIRIES
MARINE AND COASTAL FAIRIES
JUNGLE FAIRIES
DESERT AND SAVANNAH FAIRIES
POLAR FAIRIES
HOUSE FAIRIES
LIFE IN FAIRYLAND
FAIRIES AND PLANTS
A POISON GARDEN
FAIRIES AND ANIMALS
FAIRY FOES
FAIRY LANGUAGE AND SECRET SCRIPTS
A GUIDE TO FINDING FAIRIES
 

Editorial Reviews

“Worldwide in scope, thoroughly informative, teeming with relentlessly cute poppets.”—Kirkus Reviews

"A lovely volume."—Foreword Reviews

“A thoroughly charming, bewitching, enchanting, glamorous and enthralling read.”—Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

2020-06-16
A scientist’s survey of many types of fairies in their natural habitats.

Cast as the side project of a botanist from early last century (that would be the 1900s), this sumptuously produced scrapbook offers both general and clinical observations on dozens of fairy species—from tiny puffball fairies to (judging from the picture) the squirrel-sized mountain tunder—in gardens, homes, and wild climes ranging from tropical to arctic. Despite having wings (wingless varieties are called “elves”), hatching from eggs, and undergoing metamorphic life cycle transformations from legless “flutterpillars” to adult(ish) “moppets,” these nonmagical creatures are nonetheless classified as mammals by the fictive scientist. Roux follows suit in painted portraits of graceful, pointy-eared, anthropomorphic mites clad in discreet floral or leafy garb and sporting butterfly or insect wings. Rendered in the style of Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies, the diminutive figures maintain a white default but do show some variation in skin tones, hair types, and facial features. Stereotypically, all but one of the jungle fairies, including a “pygmy fairy,” are brown-skinned, but specimens resident in other habitats or in adjoining entries often make a diverse showing. Savvy advice for responsible fairy watchers closes this nearly comprehensive (tooth fairies turned out to be too “elusive” to glimpse) catalog.

Worldwide in scope, thoroughly informative, teeming with relentlessly cute poppets. (Fantasy. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews