JETHRO BYRD

A light, sweet story of a little girl who finds a fairy family in her backyard—and a reminder to save time to notice the unseen world, which to children is often very real. Annabelle looks for fairies in the garden every day, while her little brother follows along and her parents go about their daily business. Annabelle’s father is completely unable to see the fairy family Annabelle finds, although he humors her. Her mother seems somewhat more receptive, but it’s hard to tell if Mom can actually see the little creatures. The basic, stylized, pen-and-watercolor illustrations emphasize the difference in sizes between Annabelle’s human family and the Byrd family of fairies. Cutely chubby, frizzy-haired Annabelle is a veritable giant from the fairies’ point of view, and the fairies will seem fascinatingly tiny to readers; the fairy baby Cecily is “as big as a fingernail,” and the watch the fairies give Annabelle as a parting gift fits on her finger, not her wrist. The quote from Hebrews that opens the text, encouraging hospitality to strangers because some of them may be angels, characterizes the worthy concept behind this deceptively simple tale. (Picture book. 3-6)