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Estelle Grace Tudor's Felicity Bloom and the Golden Arrow is a fairy-door adventure for 9 year olds about a girl asked to be godmother to a fairy princess.
Felicity is twelve, a keen archer and a bit of a worrier. She spends her school holidays at Castle Bloom with her grandmother, her little sister Octavia and their cousins. And in the attic there's a tiny golden door that leads to Fairy Land.
The Blooms have already been through it three times, so a note from the fairy queen isn't a total shock. What it says IS. Felicity has been chosen as a godmother for Princess Evony's new baby, at the Naming Day the very next day.
It should be the happiest day. Instead, the ceremony is crashed by Nesrin, the dark fairy who is the Blooms' old enemy, in a cloud of ravens. Her "gift" for the baby is a spell of eternal sleep. And the only thing that can break it is an arrow made of pure gold.
Felicity knows it has to be her. The gold can be forged into an arrow in the north, in the land of Draig. That's where the wyverns live, and Felicity has her own reasons for dreading them.
That's what gives this one its heart. Felicity keeps her worries to herself so her family won't fret, and it's very easy to feel for her. She hasn't had much to do with babies either, and she's nervous she won't be up to being a godmother!
There's lots here for a reader who loves the cosy side of fantasy. Fairy creature companions (a mouse, an otter, a squirrel), picnics and honey cakes, and a great-aunt who adds something "medicinal" to her flask. Even with a villain as spiteful as Nesrin, it has a gentle, old-fashioned feel.
It's a later book in the series, and the story looks back to earlier adventures quite a lot. It's still easy to follow, but your reader will get more out of it knowing who everyone is.
So if they haven't met the Blooms yet, start with Octavia Bloom and the Missing Key. Octavia is nearly ten and hiding in the forbidden attic when a strange spark of light shoots into a dark corner.
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