Member Reviews

Fun little novella about fairies and the revenge they exact on a well deserving bully. Due to its short length there isn’t much in the way of character development, but it does create an interesting world.

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The Old Tree at the heart of this story is actually an ancient olive tree. It bears witness to humans, animals, fairies and the nasty goblin fairies, and all their antics, good and bad, through rain and shine. This is traditional storytelling using the tropes of good vs evil as recognised by children and adults the world over.
There's magic and adventure with three good fairies - Dawn, Blossom and Peaky Boo - protecting Peter, the kind boy who nursed an injured cat back to health (with a little help from the fairies) from the wicked man now in his mother's and his lives, and from Mirabelle, a nasty goblin fairy.
There's an underlying message here for children to absorb but also plenty of magic to keep them spellbound.

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Thank you NetGalley, Troubador, and Susana Brimlow for the early access copy of The Old Tree.

The Old Tree follows the story of three fairies, Dawn, Blossom and Peaky Boo, and a mischievous (and wicked) goblin named Mirabelle who live in a forest. When a young boy, Peter, enters the forest distraught from his mother's boyfriends abuse to a family pet, the fairies overhear his concerns. Mirabelle causes havoc for Peter by creating hallucinations. After some time, and with some help Peter breaks through the trickery of Mirabelle, but he becomes fearful when he finds out someone else is looking for him. When the boyfriend enters the woods, Mirabelle does not hold back her wicked trickery to show the damage the bully of a boyfriend has done.

The Old Tree was interesting and engaging read. The tricks played by Mirabelle were quite creative. Trigger warning, this story talks about animal abuse, and abusive parental partners.
 
Quick note:
The synopsis of the book mentions two fairies, but the book itself talks about three.
The total page count indicates 56, the eBook shows 36 pages.

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