Fairy Bell Sisters 01 – Sylva and the Fairy Ball

Margaret McNamara's Sylva and the Fairy Ball is the first Fairy Bell Sisters book, a sweet and sparkly fairy story for 6 year olds about a birthday that comes one day too late.

What happens

Did you know Tinker Bell has little sisters? There's sensible Clara, kind Rosy, stylish Goldie, Sylva, and baby Squeak, who has a language all of her own. Their home is Sheepskerry Island, where fairies go to school and keep well away from trolls.

Sylva is seven fairy years old. You have to be eight to go to Queen Mab's Fairy Ball, where every fairy gets diamond wings and dances along a path of satin ribbons by starlight.

The ball is on Friday. Sylva turns eight on Saturday. Who wouldn't cry fairy tears over that?

So she decides to be helpful instead. She stays up all night decorating her big sisters' ball gowns with sea glass, hermit crab shoe buckles and ropes of pearls from the mermaids. It goes about as well as you'd guess (Goldie is FURIOUS).

Meanwhile, something is rumbling under the ground, and only Sylva and baby Squeak seem to hear it.

The storyteller talks straight to your reader the whole way through. They share secrets, warn that Sylva is about to be very naughty, and even suggest finding another book if you only like perfect fairies. Children love being let in on it like that. It makes a really lovely bedtime read aloud, with short chapters that end on a little hook.

The sisters feel like real sisters. Goldie calls Sylva a spiteful little busybody, Rosy tries to smooth everything over, and Clara is the grown-up in her flannel pyjamas. If you've got more than one child, you'll recognise the squabble over the ruined dress!

There are some lovely extras after the story too. Squeak's words come with a little dictionary. And there's a recipe for Sylva's blueberry birthday cake, eggs "not separated! but no shells", to make with a grown-up.

The trolls are big, hairy and smelly, but they're more rude than frightening, so it's a gentle kind of excitement for this age.

What to read next

If they fall for the Bell sisters, the second book, Rosy and the Secret Friend, gives kind Rosy her turn. The Summer People have arrived on the island, and Rosy does something she hopes her sisters will never find out about.