The Friendship Fairies go to Paris
In their sixth adventure, in order to help Emme improve her French sisters Emme, Holly and Jess, along with their parents house-swap with the Gryanne Family in Paris. The excitement, potential for mishaps and adventures, and a chase across Paris to catch an octopus are charmingly captured as we navigate an alternative, ‘fairy’ Paris where picnics are held in trees, a pink octopus can be a family pet and a fairy metro runs underneath the human metro.
A lovely story about family and friendship told with humour and a child’s amusement in mind, incidents like a taxi with sweets, false teeth going missing, a ‘tiny fart’ are sure to amuse. A particular delight is how Kennedy plays with language, riffing on what we know to create something new, for example, ‘Charley Warley Airport’, and a ‘was-bee’ taxi – a retired bee who gives lifts to fairies. This adds to the fun in the books and introduces children to the delights of puns and wordplay, of looking at the everyday in a new way. The illustrations from Philip Cullen, with their warm, muted tones, reflect and enhance the book’s gentle, slapstick humour. They add to the comedy, bringing all aspects of the fairy world to life – from homes to personalities.
This is a sweet, fun and clever book. Paris is a timely destination following on from 2024’s Olympic Games and Kennedy’s juxtaposition of everyday words is a delight. A real feel-good read, whether you have read any of the other books in the series or not.
