105 Ways to Give a Book

TeenReader Tuesday: Small Persons With Wings

In honor of the tiny winged folk in Small Persons With Wings (FYI, they hate to be called fairies), and their native language, I have decided to write this entire review in Latin! Let us begin:

Salve! Mihi nomen est TeenReader!

Actually, thanks to my school’s funky curriculum, that is all my knowledge of conversational Latin. However, I know the perfect phrasing for telling someone to go die in a ditch (I necare in fossa!), so that’s a perk.

Small Persons With WingsSmall Persons With Wings, by Ellen Booraem, is the story of Mellie Turpin, who has grown up with a fairy — er, small person with wings (gotta keep the PC man off my back). But when her small friend disappears, she is called a liar by everyone she has told about him. Resolved to stop imagining such silly things as fairies, she removes every thought of them from her brain. This plan works great — that is, until her family inherits an old inn completely infested with small persons with wings.

My favorite thing about this book is the obvious effort plotting a complex world building. Every character quirk is based in the their personal history, so much so that even the magical Parvi (another name for the non-fairies) seem to have motivated and logical actions. With the exception of the magics of the Parvi, which are explained somewhat sparsely, everything is introduced slowly but surely. In this way, every strange idea seems very understandable, and the reader finds themselves doubting themselves for ever NOT believing in fairies. The story itself is light with plenty of parts that made me literally laugh out loud, and astonishingly realistic for a book about magical creatures. All in all, an intricate and creative storyline with care put into even the smallest characters. Definitely one of my favorites, and sure to become one of yours!

Salvete, omnes!

Amore, TeenReader

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7 comments:

Jennifer said...

I am now soooo wanting to tell my naughty teens to...you know. Heh. I admit I hadn't thought much about the world-building in this story, I was so engrossed in the character of Mellie. I'll have to read it again...as soon as I can pry it out of the grasping hands of my patrons!

Jennie said...

Ha ha. I remember the kids who took Latin in my high school. They could all wax poetic about wine (Even though none of them had ever actually *had* wine) but couldn't ask where the bathroom was.

The Pen and Ink Blogspot said...

Your review made me relaxo in risus
That isn't exactly how I remember it from Winnie Ille Pu (which I had to translate back into English my senior year,) but its close.
I want to read this one. Thanks

Charlotte said...

I agree--this was a fun one!

Jennifer Schultz said...

I'm in the middle of this now, and I'm loving it. I was hesitant, because I'm not big on fairies (sorry, small persons with wings) or magical creature stories, but I am totally hooked.

MotherReader said...

TeenReader actually read this book before me, so I didn't get to add my two cents. But now having finished it, I can say that I really enjoyed it. I was intrigued from the first lines:

"Last June, my parents jumped off a roof because of a pinky ring. Beware of jewelry, especially if it's more than a thousand years old. And definitely beware of your own brain. Imagination is a part of life, but it also sucks. I'm not actually allowed to say 'sucks.'"

I forgot about them as I got into the book, but loved how the beginning made so much sense after the end of the book. Great read!

Ms. Yingling said...

Wow! you got the Latin right! this is more than most authors do.