It was a pleasure to read again about this strange historical event. It wordlessly conveys much of the emotion that is briefly described in the book as the root source of the photo scam. The art in the picture book also helps keep us focused on the girls. This is very much a book about the two girls. And he definitely doesn’t dive into other people’s heads, as the longer nonfiction does. He doesn’t go into a lot of detail about how they made the photos. He keeps the focus tight on the two girls’ emotions and their reasons for setting up the photos. Nobleman does a good job of it, and some of the differences between the book help show basic differences between picture books and longer nonfiction. How could you tell the same story in a picture book format? Eventually, though, it worked through to my brain that this new book was a picture book. After all, it took chapters to explain why they set up the fake photos, how they did it, and the aftermath. I immediately assumed it was another middle grade book.

It expanded my idea of what nonfiction for kids could do.Įarlier this year I started seeing mention of a new book about the same topic, Fairy Spell: How Two Girls Convinced the World that Fairies are Real.

I had never imagined a nonfiction book could so compellingly capture such a strange and fascinating story. It was the true story of how two girls faked photos that tricked many adults, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, into believing that fairies are real. In 2012 I read a middle grade nonfiction book that bowled me over: The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World by Mary Losure (Candlewick: 2012).

The Fairy Ring by Mary Losure