Fairy Door Diaries: Eliza and the Flower Fairies by Megan McDonald , Illustrated by Lenny Wen

Fairy Door Diaries: Eliza and the Flower Fairies by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Lenny Wen
Publisher:  Candlewick Press
Format:  Paperback ARC 
Number of pages:   88 pages
Publishing:   February 4th, 2025 
Source:  Publisher in exchange for an honest review

Opening Lines:  "Imagine a door.  A teeny tiny fairy door.  Now imagine it is magic.  Open the door."

At the end of Salt Pond Lane, atop the hill, lies Eliza's family's cottage. Inside the low curved door in Eliza's bedroom is the entrance to the Land of Understair, a secret space filled with all of Eliza's favorite things—her drawings, stuffed animals, and new diary.  Deeper in the room is another teeny tiny door which with a sprinkle of fairy dust allows her to enter the world of the flower fairies.  Upon slipping a magical bracelet made of thyme onto her wrist, Eliza gains the ability to see the fairies.  Eliza then meets Poppy who introduces her to all of the other flower fairies, and together they begin to explore around the garden.  However, Eliza's curiosity soon leads her to the hedgerow where she becomes trapped in a patch of stinging nettles.  Poppy successfully rescues Eliza, but in doing so, she crosses the hedgerow and incurs the wrath of the witches Wolfsbane and Belladonna. The witches cast a spell creating a Demon Wind capable of stealing a flower fairy's scent, causing both the flower and the fairy to wither and die. Can Eliza find a way to reverse the spell and save her friends?

Megan McDonald, best known for her Judy Moody and Stink series, has a new chapter book series, Fairy Door Diaries which revolves around a girl captivated by magic and fairies, who embarks on enchanting adventures with her dragonfly familiar, Haiku.  

The land of flower fairies is a picturesque realm where each flower is accompanied by a fairy that gives the flower its scent.  I really love the artwork by Lenny Wen and how the combination of gouache and colored pencils subtly mutes the colors of the flowers while accenting the lovely details of each of the flower fairies, i.e. Violet, Lily and Daisy.  The colors are bright and with lots of pinks, purples and greens.  My favorite illustration was the laughing daffodils with giraffe heads.

Overall, this is a delightful story with beautiful illustrations that highlight's Eliza's bravery and determination to assist the flower fairies.  The narrative opens up the possibility for Eliza to further explore the enchanted worlds of pixies, elves, brownies, and even hobgoblins in the future.  This would be ideal for a reader eight years old and up who is practicing reading longer words or who is interested in flowers, fairies and hidden magical worlds.  It might even inspire the reader to make their own flower fairy garden.  

I hope you'll check out all the other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge's blog HERE   

**A huge thank you to Candlewick Press for the ARC paperback which will be donated to my local Little Free Library**