Tuesday 19 November 2013

Lettice - The Fairy Ball by Mandy Stanley (HarperCollins Children's Books)


Lettice - The Fairy Ball

Written and Illustrated by
Mandy Stanley

Published by HarperCollins Children's Books

Rabbits are definitely Charlotte's favourite animal. She spent ages cuddling cute bunnies on our recent visit to Buckleberry Farm, so when we trawled the library she was overjoyed when her best friend Sarah found a cute bunny-based book to read.

Lettice is the star of many stories with a range of books for 0-3 years, and a range for slightly older children around Charlotte's age. She is an inquisitive and cute bunny who loves to explore the woodland habitat where she lives with her mum and dad, and a huge number of brothers and sisters. While out exploring one day, Lettice is making daisy chains when she spies a tiny little creature clad in gorgeous clothes, glittering and sparkly. The little creature grabs the end of Lettice's daisy chain and disappears into a hole in a nearby tree.

Lettice is too big to follow. But with a touch of fairy magic, Lettice shrinks down to fairy size and joins them for the Great Fairy Ball. They give her a beautiful dress and soon the fairy queen arrives to thank Lettice for her daisy chain (now turned into a set of fabulous reins for the fairy queen's carriage).

Before Lettice heads home, tired and happy, the queen gives Lettice a wish - a single wish for anything she wants.

What does Lettice wish for? You'll have to read the book to find out. Normally I fail miserably at reading cute and very "girly" books to Charlotte but this entertaining story was great fun to read, and served me a valuable lesson in judging a book by its cover (it is very sparkly and more than a bit pink). Thankfully Lettice is such an endearing character and I loved her curiosity, standing out from her brothers and sisters who like snuggling and sleeping for most of the day.

Charlotte, of course, loved the book to bits. With glitter-encrusted pages and lots of fairy magic, it was definitely a huge hit with her.

Charlotte's best bit: Queen Titania and her fabulous fairy carriage

Daddy's Favourite bit: Certainly not what I was expecting, a thoroughly entertaining fairy story that's sure to appeal to bunny-and-fairy-loving girls of all ages