Junkyard Fairies (series) by Edwina Wyatt and Lauren O'Hara
In a chipped, china teapot at the bottom of the junkyard live three fairies - Fir, Tip and Nug. The junkyard had once been a picture-book forest where deer rested and birds nested, quiet and peaceful as fairy folk cam to drink the cool river water and bathe in the warm springs. But what began as an old piano dumped by someone soon became the resting place of many more unwanted things until the trees were chopped down, the river turned brown and the earth turned to dust. The magic turned to rust and the music stopped.
Even though new trees eventually pushed their way through the junk and other fairies moved in, the newcomers were unlike their predecessors - they were tough and wily, suspicious and shrewd - noisy, messy, bossy, argumentative but on the whole, happy...
But, with the help of Burp, a toad who lives in a bathtub nearby, a sleeping giant and a monstrous caterpillar, the junkyard fairies can find a way to fix just about anything and have lots of adventures in this new series for younger readers ready to cope with longer novels. With helpful introductions to the main characters and standalone chapters that offer that little bit of support they still need, Fir, Tip and Nug have to face a range of problems and complex relationships that might reflect the lives of the readers. Each chapter begins by asking the reader a question that directly relates to its focus so they are immediately engaged and invested in what is to come. While they will relate to being grumpy when they're hungry, some might even envy them not having to eat their vegetables... But when their home is destroyed by humans, and they have to find another things get a bit more serious and the premise for the subsequent episodes is established.
It's different, it's whimsical, it has a gentle underlying message about conservation and recycling and upcycling, and it reminded me a little of S. A. Wakefield's classic Bottersnikes and Gumbles and probably as far as you can get from the traditional image of glittery, magic-spreading fairies. Certainly not the world my grandies grew up in...
Themes: Fantasy, Fairies, Magical realism.
Barbara Braxton