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INSIDE GREETING: Wishing you a magical birthday.

Amelia Jane Murray was a fairy painter of the early 19th century. She was from a noble family of the Isle of Man, and Manx folklore, history and its natural beauty informs her lovely paintings.

Alexandra Day’s bestselling ‘Good Dog, Carl’ series features a dog who takes his family’s child on various adventures, always managing to conceal this from the parents. Carl is an emblem of mischievous but responsible caretaking. Now with "The Fairy Dogfather" Alexandra Day has created another character that has a special relationship with a child, one that is outside of the parental realm. And this dog talks!

A young boy, Hector, has trouble differentiating the letters D and G. Thus when he writes a request to the universe that he needs a fairy godfather, well, the Fairy Dogfather arrives instead. The Fairy Dogfather is a big black, white and brown dog who wears a fedora and beautiful brown jacket, smokes a cigar, and isn’t at all what Hector had in mind. He uses a lot of big words, and instead of simply granting Hector’s wishes, like a regular fairy godmother, he is a rather demanding visitor. It’s understandable that a Fairy Dogfather would arrive hungry and need to check the weather report, but Hector needs a present for his Mom’s birthday right away. It looks like his benefactor isn’t going to be of much help. But in Day’s capable and witty hands the Fairy Dogfather turns out to be a forceful and enigmatic figure who manages, with subtle wit, to grant all of Hector’s wishes.

This is our sixth reproduction of a shaped children’s book, and our fourth illustrated by Margaret Evans Price. Price has certainly proven popular with our customers, and for good reason. Her illustrations are pretty and fanciful. She is especially gifted at depicting children in a stylized yet not cartoonish manner. In The Betty Fairy Book (1915) a little girl – Betty – inadvertently angers the fairies by wearing a fairy crown that she finds and dancing “on fairy ground.” The fairies decide to banish her to a boat, on which Betty bravely faces several hardships. Betty’s courage endears her to the fairies, who relent and take Betty to fairyland where she is cared for and given gifts. Betty comes away from her adventure with fairy souvenirs and new friends. This charming tale is richly illustrated and will appeal to both children and sentimental adults.

After taking her children to visit Shakespeare’s house, E. Nesbit – one of the greatest of children’s novelists – was faced with a conundrum:

“I can’t understand a word of it,” said Iris.

“And you said it was so beautiful,” Rosamund added, reproachfully. “What does it all mean?”

“Yes,” Iris went on, “you said it was a fairy tale, and we’ve read three pages, and there’s nothing
about fairies, not even a dwarf, or a fairy god mother.”

“And what does ‘misgraffed’ mean?”

“and ‘vantage,’ and ‘austerity,’ and ‘belike,’ and ‘edict,’ and—“

“stop, stop,” I cried; I will tell you the story.”

And she did, eventually publishing her retellings of 20 of Shakespeare’s plays.

The plays we include are:

As You Like It, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Nigh, The Tempest, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice.

We have selected for each play images from such great illustrators as Walter Crane, Charles Folkard, May Mulliner, Arthur Rackham, Lewis Rhead, Charles Robinson W. Heath Robinson, and Hugh Thomson.

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INSIDE GREETING: Congratulations on your new addition.

Mabel Lucie Attwell’s sweet, stylized children graced her books, periodicals and advertising work over her long and successful career in Great Britain. Here a sweet baby sleeps in the trees, under the watchful gaze of a group of fairies.

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INSIDE GREETING: Books are the doors to worlds old and new.

This delightful image of a little boy reading to an attentive gathering of toys is from our Books and Readers line. They make wonderful cards to give with the gift of a book or for a book-lover’s birthday.

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Australian illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite is one of the great illustrators of fairies. In this sweet image the friendship between the fairies and their animal friends is beautifully depicted.

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INSIDE GREETING: The world is full of fairies, you only need to look.

Australian artist Ida Rentoul Outhwaite shows her facility for picturing both fairies and the natural world in this wonderful illustration.

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INSIDE GREETING: Take the world lightly and see how easy things become.

Australian illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite is arguably one of the great illustrators of fairies.

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INSIDE GREETING: May your birthday be magical.

Australian artist Ida Rentoul Outhwaite shows her facility for picturing both fairies and the natural world in this wonderful illustration.

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INSIDE GREETING: Wishing you a magical birthday.

This girl meeting the fairies is from U.K. illustrator Susan B. Pearse, who was best known for her Ameliaranne books and an iconic poster for the Start Rite shoe company.