“Fairy Houses…Everywhere” by Barry and Tracy Kane is a photographic guide to fairy house building. That’s right, you can create houses that will entice fairies to your yard, or so the book proposes. This concept of building fairy houses, according to the book, was created by New Englanders decades ago to entice woodland friends to come for a visit.
“Fairy Houses…Everywhere” is a picture book with small vignettes about the different types of fairy houses and their origins. It encourages readers to browse the pages and use the pictures as inspiration for their own creations.
Though I was skeptical, my kids and I decided to try out our fairy constructions skills. The concept focuses around only using all-natural materials and never using plants that is still growing. Since my children and I live in an apartment, I worried that this may be a problem.
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First, we looked through the many, many pictures of fairy houses in the book to find one made of pine needles, since that is the type of trees we have around our apartment complex. I didn’t have much hope of finding anything else and wondered how this book could be geared to city kids and country kids.
While searching the neighborhood, we found an abundance of fallen leaves, pine cones, houseplant leaves thrown out by neighbors and more. The girls were able to build two wonderful fairy houses from their finds. The vivid pictures of houses in the book made it easy to figure out the process, even without instructions. This is great for young children with limited reading skills or for children with very little patience for lengthy instructions. My children fall into the latter category.
Overall, this book is charming and fun. Though it shouldn’t be considered an exhaustive overview of fairy dwellings and its history, the book gives casual readers just enough information and inspiration to send them on a journey of creativity.