Oakwing: A Fairy's Tale

Gr 3–5—An 11-year-old English girl unwillingly changes into a fairy, then attempts to find her missing mother and return them both to human form. On the seventh anniversary of her beloved mother's disappearance, Rowan falls asleep under a weeping beech tree and awakens six inches tall with wings made of oak leaves. Determined to reunite her family, she befriends a robin, a swan, a giant stag, and two nature fairies. The companions battle wicked foxes through the green spaces and shopping malls of modern London, with a final showdown in the river fairies' realm beneath a lake in real-life Bushy Park. The mystery of the protagonist's vanished mother and the constant action and danger of the plot enliven this present-day fantasy. Charming details of the fairies' worlds bring the settings to life, and the friends tease each other and banter in language well matched to the contemporary time period. Readers may be frustrated that Rowan's quest remains incomplete at the end of the novel, with no hint of a sequel to answer many dangling questions about her mother's connection to the fairy realms.