Twelve-year-old Libby's family is struggling to make ends meet. When they park their camper in the woods, Libby discovers a startling secret -- tiny creatures, miniature humans with wings, living in the shelter of a massive tree tree. Protected by the old woman who owns the land, the fairies can give their human friends extraordinary magical powers. But their secret brings danger, too. How much is Libby willing to sacrifice to keep them safe?
Recommended for ages 10 and up.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK
Perhaps the cat understood her, because it growled again, swiped at her leg, missed, and backed away. Libby felt on the ground for a second rock. With one last, venomous hiss the black tomcat disappeared into the bushes. Libby hurried forward to examine the creature he had dropped.
“Oh,” she said. “Oh. Oh. Oh.”
Gently, so gently, she picked it up. In her cupped hands she held a miniature child, a perfectly formed little boy of about eight or nine. He was just about the size of a sparrow. His skin was warm and slightly sticky, a silvery gray color undercut with green, like the thin shining bark of an alder tree. On his head was a white fuzz of hair like a dandelion gone to seed. And on his back -- from between his shoulder blades -- grew a set of tiny wings. They seemed to be made of crisp browned paper, almost transparent, slender and fragile like the wings of a termite, and dusted with flakes of silver.
The wings now hung at an impossible angle, crushed and broken in a dozen places. The child was bleeding, too, from puncture wounds on its arms and legs. Such an alarming amount of blood, smeared on pale skin! His lips were bluish and his eyes were closed. But he was still alive.
