Sylva and the Fairy Ball Read online

  “Happy birthday!” cried her sisters.

  They stood in front of a table with a most delicious fairy breakfast laid out before them. Not only were there chocolate scones and buttercup muffins, fruit and flowers, juice and jams and jellies—there was also a towering cake, eight layers high.

  “Blueberry layer cake,” said Clara.

  “Made Sylva-style,” said Goldie.

  “One layer for each fairy year!” said Rosy.

  There was a knock at the door. It was Poppy.

  “Happy birthday, Sylva!” she cried. The two best friends shared a big hug. “Now we all get to go to the Fairy Ball this winter, thanks to you!”

  “Sylva!” cried Golden. “Here’s a note from Tink.”

  Happy birthday, darling Sylva!

  News of your bravery has already reached us in Neverland.

  Even Peter Pan is impressed!

  See you soon, I hope.

  xox

  Tink

  Sylva could not have been happier. Or so she thought.

  A messenger dragonfly appeared at the window. It was bearing a tiny gift.

  “Look!” said Golden. “This is a present from Queen Mab herself!”

  Sylva looked at the tiny box, which was beautifully wrapped in creamy water-silk with ribbons of deep-blue satin. The message on the card was simple and elegant:

  For Sylva, for taking a risk.

  Sylva slowly opened the box.

  “What can it be?” asked Rosy. Even Goldie was in awe.

  Sylva unfolded the soft velvet. Inside was a necklace with a golden chain. And at the end of the chain was—

  “The Narwhal’s Tusk!”

  It was a tiny replica of the magical tusk she had saved last night.

  “Queen Mab means you to wear this on special occasions,” said Clara. “It is a high, high honor.”

  Rosy put the necklace around Sylva’s slender neck.

  “It looks beautiful,” said Goldie. “But more than that, you deserve it.”

  “Oh, thank you, Queen Mab! And thank you, Goldie and Rosy and Clara and Squeak and Poppy! You are the best sisters and best friend a fairy could ever have.”

  “Bo-bo!” said Squeak.

  “Yes, let’s eat!” said Sylva. They all sat down to a glorious birthday breakfast, and laughed and talked and laughed some more about how Sylva saved the Fairy Ball.

  fairy secrets

  Squeak’s Words

  A-dah!: Perfect!

  A-nan-na: Do something

  Apa: More

  Bo-bo!: Let’s eat!

  Coomada: Love it!

  Doo: Pretty

  No lolo: Don’t be sad

  Squeak!: Oops! or Uh-oh!

  or Yay! or sometimes, Yikes!

  Woo-woo: Beautiful

  Sylva’s Blueberry Birthday Cake

  Sylva’s birthday cake is easy and quick to make, especially if you don’t separate the eggs. Ask a grown-up to help, and start by washing your hands.

  Stoke a fairy oven with plenty of wood to make a glowing fire. If you don’t have a fairy oven, use a regular oven. It should work almost as well. Preheat it to 350 degrees.

  Mix together:

  1½ cups flour (sifted, if you enjoy sifting)

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  1 teaspoon salt

  In a separate bowl, cream together:

  1 cup sugar

  ½ cup butter (Clara likes to use the unsalted kind)

  2 eggs (not separated! but no shells)

  1 teaspoon vanilla

  Add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with:

  ½ cup whole milk

  (“Alternately” means that you mix a scoopful of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Then you mix in a good splash of milk, then another scoopful of flour mixture, then milk, and so on, till it all turns into a creamy cake batter.)

  Next, gently fold in:

  1½ cups fresh blueberries, which you have sprinkled with

  1 tablespoon flour

  Don’t mix the batter too hard, or you’ll bruise the poor berries!

  Pour the batter into a buttered pan that measures 9 inches by 9 inches. If you don’t have a square pan, a round pan does nicely, too.

  If you want to get very fancy with your cake, you can add a topping before you bake it.

  Here’s how to make the topping.

  Mix together:

  ½ cup light brown sugar

  ¼ cup flour

  3 tablespoons butter (unsalted again, says Clara)

  1 teaspoon cinnamon

  When the mixture is crumbly, toss it over the cake batter. Make sure it gets into the corners, too. Then bake the cake in a fairy oven until it’s done.

  If you don’t have a fairy oven, bake the cake 25–30 minutes (using regular minutes, not fairy minutes), and it should turn out perfectly.

  The Bell Sisters’ Wing Charm Song

  An Excerpt from Rosy and the Secret Friend

  The Fairy Bell Sisters Book 2

  Rosy looked over at the fireplace mantel in their great room. There was a tiny seashell, painted bright pink.

  “That was a gift from a long-ago Summer Child,” said Rosy. “She gave it to Tinker Bell, or at least that’s how the story goes.” No one was quite sure whether that was true, but they liked to believe it was.

  “The Summer Children’s greatest gift was the Fairy Village in Cathedral Pines,” said Clara.

  “Pah-pah!” said Squeak.

  “Yes, Squeakie. It is rather amazing. Summer Children built our fairy houses, one for every family of fairy sisters who live on Sheepskerry. And it’s those houses we live in to this very day.”

  The sisters paused to think about those long-ago days. Their thoughts were interrupted by a clattering din coming from the dock, where the Summer People were arriving on the ferry. Goldie peered out the window. “Now the Summer People are horrible,” she said. “They’re especially horrible on Moving-In Day. We’ll be trapped in this hot house till nightfall because of them.”

  “I’m sure they don’t mean to be so thoughtless,” said Rosy.

  “I’m sure they do,” said Goldie. “They spoil everything, every year.” And she put her cards down. “It’s no use,” she said. “I can’t concentrate with all this noise. Let’s hide up in Tall Birch and watch them.”

  The Summer People were unloading the ferry and carrying all their many possessions up the boardwalks to the cottages. It took a long time, as Sheepskerry Island had no roads and no horrible metal monsters (“They’re called ‘automobiles,’” said Clara), and the Summer People filled up wheelbarrows to bring their boxes and bags, trunks and trinkets, to the cottages on the island. Sylva flew up to a lookout post. “Looks like there are five families this year, so one cottage will be empty,” she called down to her sisters. “That’s a relief.”

  “Wuh!” said Squeak.

  “Yes, I’d love to do something about it, Squeakie,” said Rosy. “But there’s nothing we can do. We must just put up with them as best we can. Five families is an awful lot.” She sighed. “But I suppose it’s better than six. Be careful up there, Sylva!”

  “I wonder why they need to bring so much stuff.”

  “And why must they make such a racket?” asked Goldie. “Don’t they know how sensitive we are?”

  “Come down at once, Sylva,” called Clara. “You mustn’t be seen.”

  “Just one more minute—”

  “Now, Sylva,” said Rosy.

  Sylva flew down from the birch as her sister told her. “I wouldn’t mind flying into a cottage while they’re in there, just to see what the cottages are like when the Summer People are inside them,” she said. “I could sneak up on—”

  “Oh dear me, no,” said Rosy, as crossly as she knew how (which wasn’t very crossly at all). “You mustn’t do anything like that. The Summer People are to be kept away from at all costs.”

  “Rosy’s quite right,” said Golden. “If these human people were to
see our magic and discover that fairies live here, they’d tell all their friends, who’d come hunt for us with those telescope things—”

  “Cameras.”

  “Yes, with cameras and torches and rakes and goodness knows what else. And that will be the end of us.”

  “But if we—”

  “Hush, Sylva, that’s enough,” said Clara in a clipped tone. “You remember what happened on Coombe Meadow Island, don’t you?” Clara didn’t like to have to bring up faraway Coombe Meadow, but she had to stop Sylva’s wild ideas.

  The other sisters, even Squeak, fell silent. “Did all the fairies lose their homes?” asked Sylva at last.

  “Every one of them. Their houses were trampled, their school was dug up, their queen’s palace was destroyed—” Rosy had to stop for breath.

  “—and many of them were chased till they dropped from exhaustion. So it is lucky that they all escaped.” Clara didn’t add “with their lives.” She didn’t need to.

  “I thought Summer People were nice to fairies,” said Sylva.

  “Oh, they used to be nice to fairies,” said Clara. “When children still believed in fairies.” She sighed. “But those children don’t exist anymore.”

  (How I wish Clara knew about you!)

  “So if we value our homes and our lives and Sheepskerry Island, we must stay far away.”

  “Still, if I was very careful—”

  “Sylva, I won’t tell you again. You are not to go near a Summer Cottage or a Summer Dog or a Summer Cat or any of the Summer People. It is simply too dangerous. Do you understand?”

  Sylva’s eyes welled up.

  “Sylva understands now,” said Rosy gently to Clara. She hated to see Sylva so upset. “Don’t you, Sylva?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Good,” said Rosy. “Then we’ll all be safe.”

  It did not occur to Rosy then, or for a long time afterward, that it might be she who would trespass into the world of the Summer People.

  About the Author and Illustrator

  Photo by Betsy Morrell

  MARGARET McNAMARA is the Christopher Award–winning author of more than two dozen books for young readers, including the Robin Hill School series. The Fairy Bell Sisters series is inspired not only by her love of the classic sisterhood novel Little Women but by her own experiences growing up with older sisters (and a baby brother). Margaret and her family live in New York City, but they spend part of their summer on an island in Maine very much like Sheepskerry Island.

  JULIA DENOS has illustrated several children’s books, including Just Being Audrey, Grandma’s Gloves, Dotty, and I Had a Favorite Dress. She received her BFA in illustration from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. The oldest of five sisters (and a baby brother), Julia lives in Massachusetts. You can visit her online at www.juliadenos.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors and artists.

  Back Ad

  Credits

  Cover art © 2013 by Julia Denos

  Cover design by Erin Fitzsimmons

  Copyright

  In the spirit of J. M. Barrie, who created Peter Pan and Tinker Bell, the author has donated a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book to the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

  Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

  SYLVA AND THE FAIRY BALL. Text copyright © 2013 by Margaret McNamara. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Julia Denos. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  McNamara, Margaret.

  Sylva and the Fairy Ball / Margaret McNamara ; illustrations by Julia Denos.—1st ed.

  p. cm.—(The fairy Bell sisters)

  Summary: Sylva Bell is not old enough to attend the Fairy Ball with her sisters Clara, Rosy, and Golden, but when a horde of trolls crashes the ball, Sylva bravely comes to the rescue.

  ISBN 978-0-06-222802-4 (hardcover bdg.)—ISBN 978-0-06-222801-7 (pbk. bdg.)

  EPub Edition March 2013 ISBN 9780062228031

  [1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Balls (Parties)—Fiction. 4. Courage—Fiction.] I. Denos, Julia, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.M47879343Syl 2013

  2012024990

  [Fic]—dc23

  CIP

  AC

  13 14 15 16 17 LP/BR 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  FIRST EDITION

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

  Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

  http://www.harpercollins.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada

  http://www.harpercollins.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

  P.O. Box 1

  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  10 East 53rd Street

  New York, NY 10022

  http://www.harpercollins.com