Title Fairypedia Series --- Author --- Illustrator --- Publisher DK Publishing - 2009 First Printing DK Publishing - 2009 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters --- Main Elements Fairies

Put on your wings and prepare for a magical, around-the-world fairy-finding flight. From England to Iceland to your back yard, did you know that hidden fairies are everywhere? You just need to know where to look! They come in every shape, size, and temperament, from the common mischievous Pixie to the ugly, grumpy Orculli. Uncover the mystery of how to see them (if you dare), and what to expect once you do!

This was a pretty well put together overview of the fairies of the world. In some cases I question if some of the creatures mentioned were really fairies but there is such a wide range of them, maybe just about anything can fall under that heading.

Its long enough to be able to go into some detail...well as much detail one can provide while attempting to cover Faries/Elves/Trolls/Ogres/Leprechauns/Pixies/Goblins/Hobgoblins/Boggarts/Brownies/Dwarves...there's a lot of them. It covers Fair Folk from all different regions of the world. Of course its heavily focused on the British Isles, but then when one says the word "fairy" that's the place one thinks of first, but the entire world gets covered at least a little bit.

Now I'm no fairy expert so I can't comment on accuracy, in fact I thought I found one error but then Google proved me wrong and the book right. I didn't learned much I didn't already know, just because there's so much to cover and still such a small book, but I think it is an excellent introduction.

Of course there are the silly asides by the book's "authors" two children who steal some of their father's research to share it with the rest of the world, but children's non-fiction books that don't do this are pretty far and few between. Perhaps if it comes of more like a story book (the kids describing their adventures), rather than a text book, adults assume kids will want to read it more.

Finally, some people might object to the modern takes on fairies, such as mentioning The Lord of the Rings, or The Labyrinth, but I felt they only add to fairy lore. One thing missing were more suggestions for further reading. There were a whole of 4 references at the end, and only a handful more book suggestions like Peter Pan, or a book called Pixie Warrior. I have to wonder if this is a book by the author's friend 'cause on Goodreads only 15 people reviewed it...and is described as "4-foot tall females looking for human husbands" which doesn't scream appropriate for the readership of Fairypedia *cough*. The rest were good suggestions though.