All is aflutter in the Wren family when Mr. and Mrs. Wren’s eggs hatch—except out of one egg comes a baby fairy! This is not the only peculiar thing: the baby fairy doesn’t have wings. The wrens name her Tiny Jenny and raise her with love. Unable to fly to find food like the other wren children, Tiny Jenny searches for things to eat in the brambles, and ends up causing plenty of mischief. When Tiny Jenny overhears her neighbors complaining to Mr. and Mrs. Wren—”Letting a fairy run riot in the woods. How could you?”—she runs away in search of other fairies like herself.
And find them, she does. Although the fairies smirk at Tiny Jenny’s lack of wings, the Fairy Queen agrees to grant Tiny Jenny her own wings if she can keep up with their parade.
In an unexpected twist, the fairies prove themselves to be much worse menaces than Tiny Jenny to the woodland creatures as they stomp and crash through the forest. The fairies don’t even look for food, they simply choose destruction! Suddenly, Tiny Jenny isn’t sure she wants to be a fairy at all. Luckily, the birds of the forest arrive just in time to remind her where she belongs.
Author-illustrator Briony May Smith, whose colorful mind brought us Margaret’s Unicorn and The Mermaid Moon, delivers a mischievous and spirited adventure in Tiny Jenny: Little Fairy, Big Trouble that will make readers laugh as they discover that things are not always what they seem. Smith uses muted browns and greens for the forest and bolder colors for flowers in lively illustrations that bring the story to life. The same bold colors are used on the fairies’ dresses, and Tiny Jenny’s clothes match the bluebells seen throughout the forest.
Readers of all ages will enjoy watching Tiny Jenny learn the difference between playfulness and truly bad behavior in this tale of embracing differences and finding your family.
