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A Child's Book of Faeries
A bewitching collection of stories, poems, and snippits of faerie lore from Britain and Ireland introduces children to all kinds of faeries, including elves, pixies, leprechauns, and hobgoblins.
64 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2002
60 people want to read
About the author
Tanya Robyn Batt
11 books4 followersTanya Robyn Batt writes fiction and non-fiction for children. She is also a storyteller, performer and teacher who uses her huge collection of costumes to visit schools, libraries and festivals worldwide, telling stories. In Auckland and as a part of her life as a performer, Batt runs a school of dance and drama called Imagined Worlds.
Also see Tanya Batt.
Also see Tanya Batt.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 2, 2024
New Zealand children's author and professional storyteller Tanya Robyn Batt gathers folktales and poems about fairies in this lovely collection from Barefoot Books, illustrated by English artist Gail Newey. Poems (and quotations from longer poems, songs and plays) by Robert M. Bird, Francis James Child, Thomas Hood, William Shakespeare and William Allingham are interspersed with four traditional folktales, each introduced by Batt in a two-page discussion of whichever fairy theme they exemplify. Selections include:
The Magic Cooking Pot, a Scottish folktale in which an old couple possess and then lose a fairy-blessed cooking pot that never runs out of food, when the old man fails to thank the fairies properly. It falls to the old woman to steal back the pot, fleeing from the fairies and their hounds, and aided in her escape by the pot itself.
The Fairies and the Cake Baker, another Scottish tale, in which a clever baker named Margaret, kidnapped by the fairies because they wish her to bake them her delicious cakes, manages to free herself from captivity through her understanding of her captors distaste for noise. Generous at heart however, she bakes that cake for the fairies, once freed.
Only Me, an English folktale in which a disobedient young girl, never willing to go to bed when her mother tells her to do so, has a night of play with a fairy child, only to be terribly frightened when her playmate is injured, and the fairy's mother arrives.
Leprechaun Gold, an Irish tale in which a farmer thinks he has come into great fortune, when he captures a leprechaun and forces that little being to reveal the location of his treasure. Little does the farmer know that the leprechaun is more cunning than he...
Originally published in 2002 as A Child's Book of Faeries, and then again in 2008 as The Barefoot Books of Faeries, this is the second collection of folk and fairytale that I have read from Batt, following upon her excellent The Fabrics of Fairytale: Stories Spun from Far and Wide . While that collection has a thematic focus on fabric and clothing, the focus here is on fairies, and stories about them. I enjoyed reading the selections here, I appreciated the accompanying watercolor artwork from Newey, and came away with a few new reading ideas. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to anyone interested in fairy lore.
The Magic Cooking Pot, a Scottish folktale in which an old couple possess and then lose a fairy-blessed cooking pot that never runs out of food, when the old man fails to thank the fairies properly. It falls to the old woman to steal back the pot, fleeing from the fairies and their hounds, and aided in her escape by the pot itself.
The Fairies and the Cake Baker, another Scottish tale, in which a clever baker named Margaret, kidnapped by the fairies because they wish her to bake them her delicious cakes, manages to free herself from captivity through her understanding of her captors distaste for noise. Generous at heart however, she bakes that cake for the fairies, once freed.
Only Me, an English folktale in which a disobedient young girl, never willing to go to bed when her mother tells her to do so, has a night of play with a fairy child, only to be terribly frightened when her playmate is injured, and the fairy's mother arrives.
Leprechaun Gold, an Irish tale in which a farmer thinks he has come into great fortune, when he captures a leprechaun and forces that little being to reveal the location of his treasure. Little does the farmer know that the leprechaun is more cunning than he...
Originally published in 2002 as A Child's Book of Faeries, and then again in 2008 as The Barefoot Books of Faeries, this is the second collection of folk and fairytale that I have read from Batt, following upon her excellent The Fabrics of Fairytale: Stories Spun from Far and Wide . While that collection has a thematic focus on fabric and clothing, the focus here is on fairies, and stories about them. I enjoyed reading the selections here, I appreciated the accompanying watercolor artwork from Newey, and came away with a few new reading ideas. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to anyone interested in fairy lore.
January 6, 2024
I think my biggest complaint about this book was that it could probably be separated into five separate books. I also prefer the Strega Nona version of the magic pot story. So this is a comprehensive book about fairies, and it's pretty interesting. I enjoyed the story of the girl making the chocolate cake. I don't think I like fairies. They kind of seem villainous to me.
June 12, 2018
Read many times by my children, a collection of fairy tales that actually feature fairies. Very entertaining.
September 26, 2025
It was a bit different than I was expecting, but I loved it all the same; I especially loved the poems and all the different celtic tales. A nice, simply fairy book. 🧚♀️ ✨
October 1, 2009
This is a truly gorgeous book combining story, poetry and folklore into one beautiful treasure of a collection. Tanya Batt has done her research- great book for any faerie lover!
You can find this and other Barefoot Books on my website.
You can find this and other Barefoot Books on my website.
November 7, 2010
You really can't go wrong with these books. Much-loved around our house.
September 2, 2012
This is a nice collection of faery stories. Our favorite one was "Only Me". We could hear that one many many times at bedtime.
March 7, 2019
Awards the book has received:
-Amazing Toy Award, BabyZone.com, 2002 – 2003
-BookSense 76 Children’s Pick, Winter 2002
Appropriate Grade Levels:
3rd-5th Grade
Original Summary:
This book is an anthology filled with mystical poems, short stories, and snippets of fairy lore about different types of fairies, such as elves, pixies, leprechauns, and hobgoblins. Many of the stories tell about different beliefs of what fairies do, what they look like, and how to encounter them. There are colorful and magical illustrations on each page to give the reader a visual of the text.
Original Review:
This is a cute book to introduce students to the folklore of fairies. Since it is an anthology, there is not much of a flow between poems/stories, so this book would not work well for a full length read aloud. Instead maybe reading just pieces of it outloud would work better. The stories are very interesting and offer the reader a mystical viewing towards the existence of fairies.
Possible In-Class Use:
This would be a good book to have available for free reading time, since it is so magical I feel that it could really capture the reader’s attention and pull them into the folklore beliefs. This book could possibly be incorporated into a history lesson on Europe, since many of the folklore stories have originated from both Britain and Ireland.
-Amazing Toy Award, BabyZone.com, 2002 – 2003
-BookSense 76 Children’s Pick, Winter 2002
Appropriate Grade Levels:
3rd-5th Grade
Original Summary:
This book is an anthology filled with mystical poems, short stories, and snippets of fairy lore about different types of fairies, such as elves, pixies, leprechauns, and hobgoblins. Many of the stories tell about different beliefs of what fairies do, what they look like, and how to encounter them. There are colorful and magical illustrations on each page to give the reader a visual of the text.
Original Review:
This is a cute book to introduce students to the folklore of fairies. Since it is an anthology, there is not much of a flow between poems/stories, so this book would not work well for a full length read aloud. Instead maybe reading just pieces of it outloud would work better. The stories are very interesting and offer the reader a mystical viewing towards the existence of fairies.
Possible In-Class Use:
This would be a good book to have available for free reading time, since it is so magical I feel that it could really capture the reader’s attention and pull them into the folklore beliefs. This book could possibly be incorporated into a history lesson on Europe, since many of the folklore stories have originated from both Britain and Ireland.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews