LAURA INGALLS WILDER'S FAIRY POEMS
by Laura Ingalls Wilder & edited by Stephen W. Hines & illustrated by Richard Hull
A slim, pretty volume containing five poems composed by Wilder in 1915 for a newspaper column; a protestation that fairies do indeed exist written in the following year; and a new introduction by Hines (I Remember Laura, 1994, not reviewed). It’s all wrapped in bright tableaux of diminutive, pointy-eared fairies who flit busily about lush gardens, paint rainbows in the sky, and harness toads. The prose is readable, the verses conventional but not wooden, and as the first separate edition of some of Wilder’s earliest published work for children, this is a minor literary landmark to boot. A sweet confection for fans of fairies or the author. (Poetry. 6-10)