Sunday, September 18, 2011

Fairies and the Quest for Never Land by Gail Carson Levine

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
Gwendolyn Carlisle loves fairies, perhaps too much. On her birthday, she receives the precious “kiss” necklace which has been passed down from mother to daughter ever since Peter Pan gave it to Wendy Darling. That night, Gwendolyn has the first of her visions—tantalizing, lifelike visions, almost as if she were actually in Fairy Haven. She sees animal-talent fairy Beck give a pie to wise Mother Dove and hears the voices of water-talent Rani and even Tinker Bell herself.


More than anything, Gwendolyn wishes she could be there. When she is just about to lose hope, Peter Pan comes at last and blows fairy dust on her. The instant they reach Never Land, she sets out to find fairies. But the fairies are not eager to meet her.

Then the evil Kyto, a dragon the fairies once helped to capture, escapes. He intends to destroy Never Land, starting with Fairy Haven. The fairies have but one choice: they must stop Kyto. As they set out on their desperate quest—a quest that could be their very last—the fairies must decide if Gwendolyn can help or hinder. . . .

Infused with magic and feeling, and bursting with excitement, this thrilling tale is the third in the celebrated series of illustrated novels from Newbery Honor winning author Gail Carson Levine and renowned illustrator David Christiana.

My thoughts:
This was an audio book that just didn't quite hit the spot for us.  Perhaps if you were more into the Disney fairies and all their talents it would be a better fit.  At times it felt like just a tie in to the Disney Fairy line to get children interested in buying the toys at the store.  All of their talents and ways of speaking, they don't say sorry but, "I would fly backwards if I could" and not thank you but "fly with you" got a bit long.

I lost track of which fairy was which and it just didn't hold my children's interest as I would have liked it to.  Maybe reading it aloud would have been better as the book did have some illustrations.  We made it through, but we won't be looking for any more books in this series.  It turns out this is book three!

The idea of all of Wendy's descendants having a chance to go see Peter Pan in Never Land was intriguing, but just not enough.  Peter Pan is barely in the story and it is all about the fairies.

Details
•Pub. Date: June 2010
•Publisher: Disney Press
•Format: Hardcover , 224pp
•Age Range: 7 to 9
•ISBN-13: 9781423109358
•ISBN: 142310935X

Meet The Author
Gail Carson Levine is the author of many acclaimed children’s books, including the New York Times bestsellers Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg and Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand; Newbery Honor Book Ella Enchanted; and Writing Magic. Look for many of these books and more on audio from Listening Library.

1 comment:

  1. I also like the idea of Wendy's descendants going to Neverland since I've wondered that ever since as I kid when I read Peter Pan. A different way of saying thank you. Creative one but yeah, it seemed it can get tiring too.

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