Junkyard Fairies: Dig Deep by Edwina Wyatt, illustrated by Lauren O’Hara

Title: Junkyard Fairies: Dig Deep

Author: Edwina Wyatt, illustrated by Lauren O’Hara

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Walker Books

Published: 2^nd October 2024

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 208

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: The first title in a new series full of magic, charm, mischief and mayhem from Edwina Wyatt, author of the Magnolia Moon series, and Lauren O’Hara, co-creator of Frindelswylde.

Fur, Tip and Nug live in a chipped, china teapot at the bottom of the junkyard. They are messy, bossy and never eat their vegetables. With the help of a burping toad, a sleeping giant and a monstrous caterpillar, the junkyard fairies can find a way to fix just about anything.

Join them as they navigate life at the bottom of the heap, making rusty magic and turning trash into treasure.

Illustrated by Lauren O’Hara, this is a magical new series from the author of Magnolia Moon.

~*~

Stories about fairies are common across cultures, but often, those fairies are dainty and pretty. At least in children’s books. In mythology, they can be scary or big, or tricky. Every culture has their own version of fairies, and so, it turns out, do junkyards.

Meet Fur, Tip and Nug, who live in a chipped, china teapot at the bottom of a junkyard. They’re not dainty and pretty, and they don’t do gentle magic or make things sparkle. No, these are messy and bossy fairies who never eat their vegetables. They’re friends with a toad called Burp, who helps them on the adventures in the junkyard. Then there’s the sleeping giant, a monstrous caterpillar and other things the fairies use to fix just about anything.

But life isn’t easy at the bottom of the heap. Fur, Nug and Tip must work out how to find a new home, and what to do with the strange things they find, or what find out what they can eat. They spend their days traversing the junkyard in search of things to fix so they can use them. They’re ingenious fairies who make do with what they have in this new series by Edwina Wyatt. The start to this fun series is just what we need – something magical and whimsical, that invites readers to think about fairies in a different way. I love stories that involve fairies, and each one always has something different to offer.

I think this one, that explores junkyard fairies is fantastic, because there will be many readers who might not be interested in the fairies we often see in children’s books. They want something different, perhaps to see fairies who are a bit more chaotic. Fur, Tip and Nug represent that desire to misbehave, or be cheeky, or to play all the time. What they get up to is fun and filled with laughs – they’re the kind of fairies you might not invite to a tea party, but you’d probably have them along for a messy playdate, where you can all embrace the chaos.

This book was a joy to read, and I loved that each chapter started with a question about what the reader knows about the main topic in the chapter, and then went onto list what we know before delving into how it relates to, or in some cases, is different from, the junkyard fairies in the story. It allows readers the space to recognise what they know, and find new and interesting ways of seeing the world of fairies. This was an excellent book and it looks like it is going to be a great series as well.