Sweet Pea's Precious Promise

Flower Faeries (Chapter Books) #9

by Pippa Le Quesne, Cicely Mary Barker

New

Genres: Chapter Books, Childrens, Fairies, Fiction

69 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2007

About the author

Pippa Le Quesne is Children's Editorial Director of Mulcahy & Viney. After working at Bloomsbury Childrens she spent two years at children's book packagers Working Partners before joining Puffin as Commissioning Editor, where she remained until her maternity leave in June 2004.The award winning authors that Pippa has edited include Livi Michael, Linda Chapman, Christopher Russell, Gervase Phinn, Alan Rusbridger and Carol Ann Duffy.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was a surprise hit with both my children, particularly my eight-year-old. I’ve always loved CMB’s Flower Fairies and was a bit skeptical of this series based on her fairies but written by two different authors for Frederick Warne in the mid-2000s. However, I found the series delightful, on the whole. I wish it had been around when I was a little girl as I’m quite sure I would have loved it then. It was a treasure of an experience sharing it with my sons now. I’ve always appreciated that there are both boy and girl flower fairies and, though the girl flower fairies are the stars of all but one of the books in the series, side characters like Dandelion and Herb Robert and Snapdragon are great fun and so charmingly boy-ish and the mischievous elves add another scrappy-fun element. The stories are full of the wonders of nature and the fairies’ exciting (but not too perilous) adventures. These are not the sort of fairies who sit around waving magic wands and wearing fancy dresses to tea parties (though their flower attire is beautiful!) They feel so earth-grown – the “magic” is in the flowers, the friendship, the lessons they learn. The fairies don’t even fly very far, just little flutters from flower to flower (they must fly on birds if they want to travel long distances). Much of the “danger” involves being discovered by the humans who live nearby (though I appreciate that humans are not seen as evil or enemies, merely overly curious giants who would perhaps accidentally injure the fairies or give them no peace if their world was discovered). My boys loved their adventures! These are written at a slightly higher reading level than most of the illustrated chapter books for kids and we did them as read-alouds. At times, the style gets a little “flowery” (forgive the pun) but, on the whole, I found them well-written and engaging. Some are by Kay Woodward and some by Pippa le Quesene. I believe only the front cover illustration is by CMB – the inside illustrations appear to be done specifically for these books (though I don’t see another artist listed on the copyright page) and they don’t really hold a candle to her originals but they held my children’s attention. Unfortunately, they are out-of-print, but used copies are fairly easy to come by and at least of my local library districts have the series on their shelves. I think they would delight many young fairy enthusiasts, especially those who enjoy stories rooted in nature.

Brief reviews of each in the series (ranked from favorite to least-favorite, not in reading order. Most of the plots can easily stand-alone so you could read them in any order)
Tansy’s New Petals – This was a favorite for all of us. Many rereads. The elves are so much fun here – they are mischievous, but not “bad guys” and it was inspiring to see how her change in circumstances, while initially upsetting, led Tansy to broaden her horizons and settle in to her true passion.
Almond Blossom’s Mystery – This is my oldest’s favorite. We enjoyed the mystery element and it’s also somewhat the most “magical”/fantastical of the series. Also, the elves make an appearance (can you tell they are a big hit with my kiddos? LOL)
Sweet Pea’s Precious Promise – my kids asked for several rereads of this one, too. It was especially exciting because Little Pea gets caught in a human child’s net and a daring rescue ensues. I could relate to Sweet Pea, Little Pea’s older sister, who is always so busy caring for others that she must work hard to make time to pursue her own ambitions, too.
Candytuft’s Enchanting Treats – the first one we read and obviously enjoyed enough to continue the entire series. We enjoyed the fairy chef aspect and there’s a mystery!
Lavender’s Midsummer Mix-Up – This is one of the more “traditional” of the fairy books as Lavender helps make dresses pretty for the midsummer ball. Still, I love a good fairy ball, so no complaints.
Buttercup and the Fairy Gold features those naughty elves again, a little bit of mystery, and a brave heroine.
Wild Cherry Makes a Wish – I enjoyed a story of a shy fairy who wishes she could dance but isn’t quite brave enough to ask for lessons – then finds her bravery in an unexpected moment of danger.
Strawberry’s New Friend got a lot of reread requests, perhaps because it is the only one of the series to feature a boy fairy as the protagonist. It wasn’t my favorite (a little too angsty for me) but the message that you don’t have to do everything the same as your friend in order to be close is a good one.
Poppy’s Perfect Home might be a bit intense for sensitive youngsters as Poppy’s home is destroyed by tractors plowing new fields. However, I appreciated Poppy’s spirit and courage and there is a fairly happy ending.
Rose’s Special Secret also deals with a displaced fairy (this time, humans are redoing their garden and her rosebush is uprooted). I enjoyed her industrious attitude and ambition finding and creating a new place to call home.
Jasmine’s Starry Night – enjoyed the setting focused on nighttime and stars and the human children camping. It’s not often the fairies get to observe human children this much. Many children will relate to Jasmine feeling that she doesn’t have any special hobby or talent… and it’s nice to see how she realizes that she truly does have some special knowledge to share with the other fairies.
Lily’s Seaside Adventure – I love that we get to go to the seaside! Lily’s wish to see something truly special, even though it means not exactly doing what she’s supposed to do, is something many children can relate to… she does learn her lesson, though I do wish she had apologized and been more grateful to the fairies and bird who risked their own lives to save hers.
Zinnia’s Magical Adventure – at the bottom of my list – the human children and the elves are both more unkind than mischievous and I just didn’t love the overall tone though it’s not exactly bad.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet Pea is a fairy who takes her work seriously, but she also wants to have some fun. She is taking care of her younger sister when the temptation to go have some fun, and leave someone else in charge, proves overwhelming.

This, of course, leaves to problems (involving the humans), and a bunch of Sweet Pea's friends have to work together to save young Pea. Sweet Pea realizes she has to learn how to be protective of her younger sister, but still allow her to have fun, and to have fun herself.

Some of the illustrations in this book I don't think are quite as good as most of the illustrations in the other book, the main character being the one the least satisfying artistically.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really enjoying this fairy series and so does my 5 year old. They are quick chapter books with a higher reading level (ar 6.1) We both enjoyed this story of sisters.