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The Secret Lives of Animals: 1,001 Tidbits, Oddities, and Amazing Facts about North America’s Coolest Animals Written by by Stacy Tornio and Ken Keffer Illustrated by Rachel Riordan FalconGuides®     10/01/2015 978-14930-1191-9 254 pages     Age 7—12 “Did you know that a grasshopper’s ears are on his belly? Or that a bison can …

Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate
As told to Lesley M.M. Blume
Illustrated by David Foote
Alfred A. Knopf (an imprint of Random House)
$16.99
ISBN: 978-0-375-86203-8
Ages 9-12
On shelves September 14^th

The term “urban fantasy” gets bandied about a bit these days. If you’re unfamiliar with it, basically it just boils down to the idea of placing normally pastoral fairies in the big bad city. You get a lot of urban fantasies on the young adult and adult fiction side of things. Gritty streets + fluffy fairies = new genre. It’s strange to think that few have ever extended this idea to the younger ages. Urban fairy picture books are few and far between and chapter books? Even The Spiderwick Chronicles sets its modern day tales of fairies in the countryside rather than in the grimy urban streets. Lesley M.M. Blume aims to change all that. Her newest book delves deep into those aspects of New York City where folks might not expect to find the extraordinary (say, the Lincoln Tunnel) and give the grit some magic. Even the most countrified kid will find something to love about this truly metropolitan fare. It’s a doozy.

When one strays into a foreign land, it is advisable to have a native guide on hand. But what do you take with you when the foreign land in question is your own backyard? For that, you will need to turn to an expert. And the expert in the case of city fairies and their kin is Miss Edythe McFate. With great relish, Miss McFate shares with the reader many helpful tips and tricks on dealing with fairies. And not just any fairies, mind, but the ones that have adapted to large city centers like the heart of New York City itself. In this book, a reader will encounter eight short cautionary tales (some more cautionary than others) and, between those chapters, practical advice regarding fairies and their day-to-day lives. Sometimes funny, sometimes dire, McFate/Blume weaves a new look at fairies in the city and leaves the reader wanting more. I’ve no doubt that a sequel cannot be far behind.

The book sets itself apart from the pack partly because it’s not afraid to be all things to all people. Do you like practical field guides to impossible critters that could not possibly exist? It is that. Or do you prefer short stories about fairies (“and other nasties”) and couldn’t care less about the practical survival techniques such a book might provide? It is that as well. Blume gives you the option of picking and choosing what it is you wish this book to accomplish. Visually, it does not resemble a field guide of any sort. No faux battered cover or mock leather clasp. Inside there aren’t individual boxes or cutaways. Really, just glancing at the chapters a person would be inclined to believe that this was just your average everyday middle grade chapter book. I was rather taken with the unexpected nature of the presentation. While the subtitle certainly does mention that this is “A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate”, how many kids are ardent subtitle readers? This book will therefore come as a bit of a surprise to them. The question then becomes, a good surprise or a bad one?

3 Comments on Review of the Day: Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins and Other Nasties by Lesley M.M. Blume, last added: 9/15/2010