Miss Edythe McFate, fairy observer in NYC, recounts tales & helpful information to Lesley M. M. Blume in Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins & Other Nasties, published by Alfred Knopf, 2010. Miss McFate wants the reader to know that fairies are not just sweet little tinklers, and currently they live in the pockets & pathways of New York City.
While certain stories & zingers do leap out from this collection, my overall reaction was, “Huh. Fairly fun. Certainly makes sense that there are stinky goblins underneath the Lincoln Tunnel.”
McFate/Blume turn a nice phrase here & there, as in this line, “Progress is a hungry thing, and eventually it hunts down even the most resistant holdouts.” (p.24) And this note for gardeners: “Take ten little rocks and make a circle near the garden’s entrance, or on its left side if the garden has no gate. This is a universal sign to fairies that they can help themselves to growing vegetables and flowers.” You will be rewarded with luscious produce, and fairies love scarecrows as they find them hilarious.
The actual tales that stick are “Behind the Brass Doors in the Lincoln Tunnel,” the booger flicking goblin one, and “The Ballad of Big Edd,” about a Lorelei. There are appallingly mannered goblins harvesting rubies under the Lincoln Tunnel. It does not behoove you to steal from them, as the child protagonist finds out. This piece is highly tellable, as long as you don’t mind the bodily functions: “the third man added to the conversation by bending over and letting out a great crackling fart. The discussion got louder and so did all of the accompanying noises until there was a symphony of grunts, burps, and well, you know.” (p. 77)
I loved the Lorelei piece. I fell for the general soppiness of the mermaid, which lulled me into a false sense of security. Admittedly, I have a bit of a Mermaid Thing. The Lorelei story embodies McFate/Blume’s typical structure: build up the character of the child, then the character of the fairy entity the child will encounter, and then bring it to a sharp climax and cut it off. Before & after each tale come the little information sections: I especially liked hearing that the graying of my hair has a fey cause. Extremely tiny fairies depend on sucking pigment from individual human hairs to keep themselves in the pink. Makes sense. Hairy fairies!
The illustrations, by David Foote, offer more when they are delineating places or things, rather than people or fairy entities. They are inky black & white, and strewn throughout the text enough to keep, say, an accomplished 4th grade reader chugging along. The humor and vocabulary of the text makes it a good fit for any reader interested in fantasy, from around 9-10 years old to so-called adults.
The more I write about it, the more I like it. The text as a whole kind of steals into your consciousness. Well done you, Miss Edythe McFate!
