The Night Fairy »

Laura Amy Schlitz is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! VOICES FROM A MEDIEVAL VILLAGE, illustrated by Robert Byrd. She is also the author of A DROWNED MAIDEN'S HAIR: A MELODRAMA; THE HERO SCHLIEMAN: THE DREAMER WHO DUG FOR TROY; and THE BEARSKINNER: A STORY OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, a retelling illustrated by Max Grafe. She lives in Baltimore, where she is a lower school librarian at the Park School.

Angela Barrett studied at the Royal College of Art in England with Quentin Blake and is one of Britain’s most highly acclaimed illustrators. She has won the Smarties Book Prize and the W. H. Smith Illustration Award for her work and has illustrated more than twenty-four books for children, including classic tales, fairy tales, biographies, story collections, and picture books. She lives in London.

From 2008 Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz comes an exhilarating new adventure — and a thoroughly original fairy who is a true force of nature.

What would happen to a fairy if she lost her wings and could no longer fly? Flory, a young night fairy no taller than an acorn and still becoming accustomed to her wings — wings as beautiful as those of a luna moth — is about to find out. What she discovers is that the world is very big and very dangerous. But Flory is fierce and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. If that means telling others what to do — like Skuggle, a squirrel ruled by his stomach — so be it. Not every creature, however, is as willing to bend to Flory’s demands. Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz and world-renowned illustrator and miniaturist Angela Barrett venture into the realm of the illustrated classic — a classic entirely and exquisitely of their making, and a magnificent adventure.

Publishers Weekly

All is not well in fairyland, at least for Flory, a young night fairy whose wings were broken during an encounter with a bat. Feeling vulnerable when unable to fly, Flory finds shelter in a wren house and decides to become a day fairy despite her nocturnal bent (“She soon found that her body did not like the day. Her skin liked to be cool and moist, not hot and dry”). In this whimsical and cozy tale, Newbery Medalist Schlitz (Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village) explores what it's like for a tiny winged creature to be grounded. Readers will delight in Flory's resourcefulness in finding food, clothing, and a new form of transportation (on the back of a squirrel), and identify with her brash, childlike personality (“I hate, hate, hate bats, and I'm always going to hate them”), which softens as she grows compassionate and makes friends. Culminating with Flory's brave act of saving a hummingbird caught in a spider's web, this story reveals how handicaps can be overcome through quick thinking and determination. Full-color art not seen by PW. Ages 7–11. (Feb.)