Lavender's Midsummer Mix-Up

Flower Fairies

by Kay Woodward

Lavender is busy getting all the Flower Fairy outfits washed and ready for the highlight of the Flower Fairy year the Midsummer Party! After she s finished, she starts to play a fun game of hide and seek with all her fairy friends. Suddenly she hears children s voices nearby and the Flower Fairies are in danger of being seen! Can Lavender manage to save the day and divert the children away from Fairyopolis? And can the Midsummer Party still take place?"

Genres: Chapter Books, Childrens, Fairies, Fantasy

80 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2006

About the author

Editor-turned-author Kay Woodward has written many successful books for children including her novel Jane Airhead, the Flower Fairies series and Magical World series. She's also written film and TV tie-ins including The Golden Compass, Happy Feet, Robin Hood and Shoebox Zoo, plus non-fiction titles and joke books. Kay lives in Hampshire with her husband and her little girl, and writes from her office overlooking a massive eucalyptus tree.

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.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is almost what you would expect to find if you opened up a book for young people about fairies. It's all by the numbers stuff with no surprises and nothing you would remember the next day except the bright cover.

[Mícheál · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with my daughter. Quite good for young readers, even to listen to it being read to them.

[Dale Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I reviewed this from a list of favorite books my 2nd grade grand daughter is reading. She ranked as "not so much," and I have to agree.

Note that this is the first book in the Flower Fairies Friends series.

The story of Lavender, the laundress to the fairies in the garden, who is trying to help get everyone's dresses washed in time for the Midsummer Party. Her attempts are spoiled when a pair of human children blunder through the garden and the dresses are thrown in the mud. She then needs help to get them clean again in time for the party.

There is really very little plot that is in any way engaging for young readers. I have been told that books later in the series are a little better, but there are much better reads for 2nd-3rd graders

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lavender loves doing laundry, and is working on getting the fairies laundry done for their Midsummer festival. Things go drastically wrong, though, when the two human children who live nearby almost discover the fairies and end up trampling the laundry.

She ends up getting help from all the other fairies, and it's another delightful story in the series.

[Dahl Kids · Rating 4 out of 5]

We love these sweet Flower Fairy books (based on Cicely Barton's Flower Fairy poetry book). We've read quite a few the past year.

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lavender and the other fairies were going to have a partybut then somebody knocked down the party dresses.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LIKE IT BECAUSE IT WAS FUN AND LAVENDER DID SOMETHING REALLY GOOD (G age 5)

[Kimberly Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute.

[_Asterisk_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There were fairy clothes on spider silk lines."