Charles van Sandwyk, a young Vancouver artist who splits his home between the West Coast and a remote Fijian island, has written and illustrated this keepsake fairy kit. The kit contains van Sandwyk’s book, a blank journal “for fairy sightings,” and three notecards, along with a poster and bookmark. This collection is the latest in a flurry of fairy-themed books trying to capture the market long cornered by Cecily Mary Barker. The gift box idea is appealing, but isn’t executed successfully. Van Sandwyk’s Victorian, Rackham-inspired watercolours have at their best a certain delicate charm, but they’re inconsistent and lack the magic of Barker’s drawings. Unfortunately, the three illustrations chosen for the notecards are not the best of the lot, and this selection is out of touch with the kit’s audience – few eight-year-olds would send a card featuring a bare-breasted fairy.

The book How to See Fairies contains a brief poem and a “Pocket Guide to the Little People,” describing the habits of such creatures as lamplighter fairies and fungi folk; a full-page watercolour accompanies each description. The text’s simplicity makes the book suitable for even preschool children, but the kit as a package, with its journal and notecards, is more appropriate for children eight and older, a difficult discrepancy. How likely are emergent readers and writers to keep a journal or send cards, particularly those with such adult-oriented images? Perhaps the publishers were hoping for appeal in an adult market, but the product seems too slight to make this transition, particularly at $29.95.