Inked Brownies

Let me start by saying that I love, love, LOVE stories that involve woodland animals, so I'm already biased just by looking at the cover. I still can't walk through a forest without imagining there are little fairies, gnomes and cozy animal houses. The Wind in the Willows is probably my all time favourite book mainly because of this. It won't come as a surprise that I fell in love with the Whimsy Wood right away either. This is one of the first illustrations:

I'm feeling so much love for this!

Ahum, then there's the story itself of course. Fearne is an adorable little fairy. After landing rather unfortunately from a short (literal) flight down the stairs, she's in desperate need for some of her sorehead-fixing dandelion drink. When Fearne discovers she's all out of the special brew, she goes on a search for dandelions to make some more.

This is one great book to read to your children while they can be in awe of the illustrations. The font is big and the text simple enough for  5-8-year-olds (and up) to read by themselves. If I had any children or if I was working with children, these books would be a great asset to getting them excited about reading while learning the importance of a few social skills as well. I'm even contemplating on ordering the entire series in hardback format, just for myself, and to admire them on and off a bookshelf.

The only downside I could find is that the book info promises 66 pages, yet only delivers about 45 of them, storywise. There are quite a few blank pages or entire pages dedicated to a one of the previous books in the series, as well as internet links. If it were up to me, I'd trim it down a little, pagewise, by putting more information on one page instead of spreading it out so extensively. And/or add a few more pages of storyline, of course. The more, the better!

There's a bunny wearing flip-flops in here. I probably would've given these 4 brownies for that alone already.