A Treasury of Flower Fairies

by Cicely Mary Barker

Over the past few weeks I've been reading this book to my daughter. It's a collection of art featuring fairies and flowers, created by Cicley Mary Barker. I never heard of her before, but when I found this book at a thrift sale I thought it was just beautiful and picked it up. Apparently the artist published eight books of flower fairy art/poems, which have also been compiled into a few different collections.

Each spread in the book has an exquisite painting of a fairy, with its accompanying plant or flower (some are trees, or roadside "weeds" not all strictly flowers). The fairies' clothing echoes the petals or foliage of their plants, and the artist used children from her sister's kindergarten class for models. They're so charming and lifelike. The way each fairy reflects the character of his/her flower or tree is really very well done. I loved looking at the pictures. The paintings are accompanied by poems, which tell something about the nature of the plant. I actually learned a few things from the poems- the names of a few plants I recognize but never knew their identity. Some of them, however, were awkward to read aloud- the lines did not flow easily, and occasionally we came across an unfamiliar word I had to explain to my daughter- like bairn, quagmire or bonnet. It's really a lovely book. I'd be thrilled to find another of the series.

Rating: 4/5 ......... 126 pages, 1923

Visit the website where you can see more of her artwork.