Do you love fairies? Then you will love this Fairy Book Review and Fairy Play! Read on…
The Book Review
Too Many Fairies
by Margaret Read MacDonald
This book quickly became a favorite. A woman with too much to do complains and complains about her workload. As she is complaining there is a knock at the door. A fairy rushes in and and takes over one of the woman’s jobs (are you loving it already?) Because her workload is so huge, the woman moves to another of her chores. Soon she is “grumbling” again. What happens? Another fairy shows up and takes over that chore. (BRILLIANT… oh yes it’s a dream.) This continues until the woman can just not stand it anymore. The fairies have taken over! Well she figures out how to get rid of them and in the end she decides she would much rather LOVE her work than have a house full of fairies doing it for her.
What I love
~The pictures are bright and cheerful.
~The story is repetitive (which made it perfect for a play)
~The moral is fabulous.
~It’s just plain fun!!!
The Fairy Play
“This book is so much fun! How many characters are there? How many of us are there? Hmmm. I wonder if we could make this book into a play?” I barely had the word play out of my mouth when all 5 kids (this happened at our extended sleep over) jumped up and ran to collect props.
Once we had collected all the props need. (We did get creative on a few necessary items.) Everyone picked a role. We were short one character so I played two.
The actors got into place and I read the book. Too Many Fairies translates so easily into a play that I basically just read and paused when it was time for one of the kids to speak.
They jumped into character. Listened carefully for their cue
In the beginning they needed help with their “lines” but since we repeated the play 6 times (oh no that is not an exaggeration) by the end each of the kids knew their lines by heart.
Each time the story came to an end someone would shout. “This time I’m the old woman.” or “I want to be the dishes fairy!” They were engaged and excited the entire time.
This is one activity I wish I had a camera crew for.
Have you already started searching for the book?
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This a cute idea!I am always looking for ideas to bring books to life!
I love bringing books to life. 🙂
Oh what fun to see that you are playing with TOO MANY FAIRIES! This is what I hope will happen when I work so hard to get these delightful folktales into a book. You did just the right thing by just reading it a few times until they had the gist of it and then turning them loose….with a few props I see! It bothers me when adults want kids to memorize scripts. All they need is a plot idea and freedom to PLAY. I always bring kids up from the audience to be fairies when I tell this in school assemblies. And they never fail to take over their roles with gusto. At the end when I say “The fairies began to grumble and growl”….what a nice lot of growling I get!
PS Look for my latest book. THE BOY FROM THE DRAGON PALACE. It was supposed to be called “The Snot Nose Little Boy” but the publisher got cold feet at the last minute. It’s still about a snot nose little boy though.
I saw you have quiet a list of books. I can’t wait to get my hands on some of them. Thank you so much for stopping by and I will most definitely keep my eye out for THE BOY FROM THE DRAGON PLACE. 🙂
How awesome! I am definitely going to add this book to my list. Thanks for sharing with Afterschool!
Yeah! It was so great!
How delightful! I love creative play ! Thank for sharing!
I love creative play as well… thanks for visiting!
King Obren & Queen Titania are my favourite!
This reminds me of our “Rickity Barnyard Shows.” I’ve had great fun with my kids performing these impromptu shows showcasing the talents of my kids to an audience.
How fun!
Oh this is fun. Folktales translate so easily into pretend play because of their roots in oral culture. I love that this happened at a sleepover!