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A Fairy Named Hilary [reviewed by Susan Orr]

A Fairy Named Hilary is a story about a young girl and her friendship with a fairy named Hilary. Hillary comes to stay with Caroline and her family. The story tells about their adventures together.

One day Hilary magically appears in Caroline's family's car. It takes some convincing to make them believe that she is a fairy, but they are finally convinced, and Hilary is invited to stay. Hillary quickly explains to Caroline and her family that no one else can know she has magical powers. She also explains that one day she will disappear. The family agrees to keep her secret and the adventures between Caroline and Hilary begin.

The way the story is told is extremely effective. The end of the book reveals that Caroline and Hilary wrote the whole story. After the family thought that Hilary disappeared forever, the two girls decided to sit and write a story about their time together. This made a good and effective ending for the book. This way the author never had to reveal if Hilary ever returned to Fairyland.

This book also allowed the reader to use their imagination. By introducing a fairy to the book, it changes the story from just being about two young girls who are friends. It allowed the author to use elements of magic. At one point in the story, the two girls make the family cat, King Arthur, invisible and they take him to school. They also enabled him to talk for one day.

The magic used in the book gave interesting twists, which could not have been used if the book had just been about two girls. Adding a fairy to the story not only allowed the author to expand the plot to incorporate aspects of magic, but it allows the reader to expand their imagination. A Fairy Called Hilary was an interesting book with an effective ending.

Source(s):
Strauss/Truesdell. A Fairy Named Hilary. Holiday House, 1999.