What do you do if you’re transported to a mystical room brimming with colorful animals, curious plants and flying books? And what if you hear voices coming from inside an ancient wardrobe in this peculiar and puzzling place?
Should you run? Hide?
Absolutely, positively not!
If you are Mikolay and his dear friend, Julia, and several weekends a month you attend the Magical Weekend School for Children of Magical Creatures, you repeat the words “Eis Izras” three times and bravely open that wardrobe door! And this is exactly what they do.
In Mikolay and Julia Meet the Fairies, author Magda Olchawska invites readers (and those being read to) on an charming adventure with her two young wizards-in-training and their new friends, the “wardrobe fairies.” The fairy queen, Farina—a gentle creature who sings like a mermaid—tells Mikolay and Julia that her forest homeland has been invaded by a huge monster with gnashing teeth and belching smoke. The noisy beast and his cohorts are destroying everything in their path: trees, animals, flowers…dwarves. (Hmmm. Does this sound like some humans we know?)
Oh my! What is a wizard-in-training to do upon hearing such distressing news?
Help solve the problem, of course! And what should they use to conquer such a fiend? Perhaps Julia will use her crystal ball for transporting, or Mikolay another chant like “Eis Roto Onac” or “Eis Nasem Mocurcium.” These spells have been known to produce positive results.
Will the answer be found in a charm, a hex…advanced magic?
While escorting young readers on this magical journey to a solution, Magda Olchawska also teaches a lesson in environmental conservation on a child‘s level, and offers prompts and suggestions for parents to follow-up. Having read many fine books to my own grandchildren, I would suggest this one for children ages 4 to 9 and give it 4.5 stars. The child-friendly illustrations in Mikolay and Julia Meet the Fairies are done by Joanna Gniady with simplicity and a striking use of color that will surely spur any child‘s imagination.
You can learn more about writer-filmmaker Magda Olchawska and her creative works, which include indie shorts like “The Man With The Spying Glass” and “9 mm,” at http://www.magdaolchawska.com and http://www.bulletfilm.com
