SOMEWHERE IN KAKADU

Two fairies get lost in the Australian Outback in Ritchie’s middle-grade novel, the latest in a series.

Fairies Mica and Wrenna have left Fairy Land (situated somewhere in the Rocky Mountains) on an expedition to Australia to see the famed stromatolites of Shark Bay: “Living fossil rocks. Almost as old as the planet.” Due to the recent destruction of Fairy Land’s Barrier and its transportation portals, the pair are forced to travel by tunnel which, though faster than flying, still takes quite a bit more time than they are used to. They surface in a verdant grassland filled with dragonflies and strange birds, but a rainstorm washes away the entrance to their tunnel, stranding the fairies on this new continent. The two friends set about investigating their environment, figuring out what food they can eat, where they can sleep, and what animals (crocodiles? bandicoots? toads?) they need to be afraid of. They manage to befriend a rainbow-colored bird whom they call BB and, later, a human boy called Ghy. Ghy is an Aboriginal Australian, a “Traditional Owner” of the continent who shares information with the fairies about its six seasons and its millions of years of geological history. With the help of Ghy—and a tribe of Australian fairies—Mica and Wrenna must figure out how to find their way home. Ritchie’s simple prose captures the beauty of the Australian ecosystem: “Wrenna turned back to watch the rain falling, like a waterfall just outside their cave. ‘It’s all alive. It’s all connected. The land, the sky, the storm…all the plants and trees that grow, all the creatures that walk, swim, fly, crawl, even the air itself.’” The book does little to establish the rules of the fairy world, and readers unfamiliar with the previous books may have trouble finding their feet. The plot proceeds at a sleepy pace, though that seems to be the point: Ritchie’s fable of environmental stewardship requires readers to stop long enough to notice the world around them.

A leisurely children’s fantasy with an ecological message.