Book Review of The Moose Fairy
The Children’s Book Review
The Moose Fairy
Written and Illustrated by Steve Smallman
Ages 3+ | 32 Pages
Publisher: Happy Yak | ISBN: 9780711258839
What to expect: Humor, accepting differences, fairies, and friendship
THE MOOSE FAIRY by Steve Smallman is a heart-warming story about being different, and accepting your true self.
There once lived a moose in the forest who wanted more than anything to be…
A fairy!
Wings, wands, sparkles, you name it, Moose loved it. When Moose sees a sign for The Secret Fairy Club meeting, he gets pretty excited—this will finally be his chance to live out his dream of fairyhood!
He digs out his best fairy costume and heads over to the meeting, only to discover he’s about six feet taller than the rest of the forest creatures there. They are all bunnies, mice, and rodents, and not one giant forest creature stand among them besides himself. And it sure doesn’t help when a few of them point out how different he is. He persists anyway with all the fairy meeting excitement, and it seems to be going swimmingly until it’s time to get inside the fairy clubhouse itself.
With his big body and rack of antlers, Moose can’t fit! And the rude little mouse sticks her whiskery nose out and tells him, “You can’t be in our club…you just don’t fit in!” But when a hungry fox comes along, it’s Moose and his strong horns that come to all of the Fairy Club members’ rescue, making everyone realize just how amazing it is for Moose to be different and how those differences truly saved the day!
With a charming Moose main character and adequately rude mice friends (you can just hear her tone of voice when she tells Moose to get lost!), Moose’s story jumps off the page and will delight young readers who know what it’s like to be excluded. And really, who hasn’t been? It’s incredibly satisfying when Moose’s enormous size is the exact thing that saves the group, and the forest creatures admit they were wrong all along. By Moose owning his identity and pursuing his passions, everyone in the forest gets a happy ending—including the reader.
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About the Author-Illustrator
Steve Smallman has been illustrating children’s books for almost 30 years and writing his own stories for slightly less. He also teaches illustration workshops in schools, including mural-painting. Steve is the author of Smelly Peter the Great Pea Eater (Winner of the Sheffield Children’s Book Award 2009) and The Lamb Who Came for Dinner (Shortlisted for the Red House Children’s Book Award and read by Meatloaf on CITV’s Bookaboo). When he’s not working, Steve enjoys films, television, gardening and walking in the countryside.
Denise Mealy reviewed The Moose Fairy. Discover more books like The Moose Fairy by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Humor, Differences, Fairies, and Friendship.