Clemency Pogue listens to the stories her parents tell her - luckily for her. When a very nasty little fairy attacks her, stinging her over and over again with her wicked little fairy wand, there is nothing she can do to protect herself. Finally she finds herself clinging for her life to the edge of a very high cliff. Desperation brings to mind the story of Peter Pan, and Clemency starts shouting, "I don't believe in fairies" over and over until, finally, the evil little fairy drops dead.The only problem is that six other fairies died (one for every time she shouted out the words), too. She is informed of this by a hobgoblin who suddenly appears, scolding her for her actions, and even though some of those other fairies were wicked ones, too, the others were not. Clemency, a resourceful girl who has made herself a very stylish pair of burlap pants, realizes she must somehow atone for her actions. She and the hobgoblin dart around the globe, trying to figure out how to bring the dead fairies back to life.
My favorite fairy of the ones who were accidentally killed is the Fairy of Noninvasive Surgery. Unfortunately at the time of her demise she was removing a pea that had been inserted into the ear of "a little girl who should have known better." Now the little girl, who lives on the icy tundra in the heart of Siberia, has a pea in her ear as well as a dead fairy. Clemency clearly has her work cut out for her!
I loved the premise of this book, as well as the action-packed humor and details. Clemency makes mistakes, and sometimes she can't figure out what to do. But she's clever and persistent, she tries different approaches, and her heart is definitely in the right place. I will certainly be reading about Clemency's further adventures!
To date, the books in the Clemency Pogue series are:
- Fairy Killer
- The Hobgoblin Proxy
- The Scrivener Bees
Clemency Pogue: Fairy Killer by J.T. Petty; illustrated by Will Davis (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2005)
Publisher recommends for ages 9 - 12
This sounds fabulous!! And also the Spookie books below. You are doing serious damage to my tbr list.
ReplyDeleteYou've done it again! You keep posting about this wonderful-sounding series that I know I won't be able to resist. I echo Nicola's words :P
ReplyDeleteToo cute! I'm a faerie freak so this sounds wonderful! Wonder if they'll make a movie or TV show?
ReplyDelete[Insert maniacal laugh here.] It's working! I live to make people's TBR piles taller! :-)
ReplyDeleteIf it's any consolation, it's a very quick read - I read the entire thing in about an hour, I think. Can't wait to hear what you think about it!
I just wish I remembered on whose blog I read the initial review of it, though.
The max & pinky robert snow stuff - so cute!
ReplyDeleteps - one of my favorite halloween memories is sitting down with my sister and swapping candy after we came home. It was a somber affair, trick or treating candy is not to be taken lightly. All candies had value and we each had our favorites. Fun times!
Thanks, VA Gal!
ReplyDeleteAnd about candy swapping - absolutely - we would trade the ones that one of us liked, and the other didn't. And we'd give the yucky ones that our parents inexplicably liked (Mr. Goodbar? Hershey's Special Dark? Mounds? Ick!) to them. I think my girls are pickier than I was (imagine that!), so I take all their rejects to work, where everyone sighs and gives me dirty looks but eats it. :-)