Picture Book Review | Freddie and the Fairy by Julia Donaldson and Karen George

Julia Donaldson is fast becoming one of my daughter’s favourite authors, and she isn’t even old enough to speak yet. Of all those whose work is read to her at bedtime, Donaldson’s invariably provokes the most smiles and chuckles. It won’t be long though before she’s able to make sense of the pleasing sounds that she’s hearing, and when she does, it’s stories like this one that her mother and I want her to absorb, and hopefully take to heart.

Short and sweet, Freddie and the Fairy tells of a hearing-impaired fairy, Bessie-Belle, who struggles to grant the wishes of the eponymous Freddie because he’s constantly mumbling; covering his mouth; or even turning away when he’s telling her what he wants. At first, the effect is comic, with Freddie being gifted a net instead of a pet; a bat instead of a cat; a louse instead of a mouse; and so on. However, such a string of failures saddens Bessie-Belle, and so it falls to the Fairy Queen and her Three Golden Rules to teach the well-meaning but insensitive protagonist that a little compassion and consideration is to everyone’s benefit - especially his. Or at least, “nearly”.

Intriguingly specific and just on the right side of preachy, Freddie and the Fairy is an enchanting little morality tale that holds its own against some of the author’s more substantive, better-known works.