Ever since she was teased for believing in fairies, Mellie has adopted a strictly scientific and logical approach to life. But when her parents inh...
read full description
reviews
Dec 27, 2011
Wendy
rated it: 
This was a disappointment to me. It's tempting to say just "it's not my thing" and move on, but atually, this IS my thing--magic/fantasy as long as it's set in the real world. So it isn't just that. I really liked all the human characters, and that's where the three stars come from. I liked all the art history, and my favorite part is toward the beginning when Mellie has devoted herself to science, logic, and facts. The art scrapbook, and her father's reaction to it, is the funniest th
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Nov 18, 2011
Jody
rated it:
This unusual fairy story begins with Mellie's Kindergarten years, as she has a fairy aka "small person with wings" that keeps her company. When she shares this fact with her classmates, who generally torment her because of her weight, she has a small surge of popularity, but loses it quickly when she can't make good on a promise to bring him in for show 'n tell. The years following are filled with relentless teasing/bullying from her classmates, as well as the loss of the fairy compani
More...
Aug 20, 2011
Barbara
rated it:
Mellie Turpin once had a small person with wings---we might call him a fairy--named Fidius who lived with her in the family's Boston apartment. When she happens to tell some kindergarten classmates about him and promises to bring him to class, Mellie has a brief moment of popularity, but Fidius punishes her and disappears. From then on, school becomes a terrible place for Mellie, teased by the others who call her "Fairy Fat" and make fun of her imaginary friend. Needless to say, she wi
More...
May 21, 2011
Heidi
rated it: 
Mellie had a small friend named Fidius when she was young. He was a small person with wings (NOT a fairy). Unfortunately, Mellie bragged about him one day in kindergarten and the kids pressured her into bringing him to school. When Fidius found out about this, he disappeared. Soon, all the kids at school were calling Mellie, 'Fairy Fat.' Mellie responded by turning away from all things imaginary and becoming an avid student of math, science, and artists. She's relieved when she finds out he
More...
Mar 10, 2011
Seanean
rated it:
http://librarytalker.blogspot.com/2011/0...
When she was just five, Mellie Turpin lost her small person with wings (NEVER call them fairies). Well, she didn't really lose him, she just accidentally angered him so much that he left her. She didn't know that he was a secret. She didn't know she wasn't supposed to tell. And she certainly didn't know that she wasn't supposed to offer to bring him to school for show-and-tell like one might bring a pet.
Now he's gone.
The oth More...
When she was just five, Mellie Turpin lost her small person with wings (NEVER call them fairies). Well, she didn't really lose him, she just accidentally angered him so much that he left her. She didn't know that he was a secret. She didn't know she wasn't supposed to tell. And she certainly didn't know that she wasn't supposed to offer to bring him to school for show-and-tell like one might bring a pet.
Now he's gone.
The oth More...
Mar 05, 2011
Sarai
rated it:
I wanted to give this 3 1/2 stars. It was cute, funny at times - I liked her lists - but overall there were no surprises and why would the kid next door like her after the way she treats him during their first encounters? Still, there were some creative ideas here.
Product Description
Ever since she was teased for believing in fairies, Mellie has adopted a strictly scientific and logical approach to life. But when her parents inherit her grandfather's inn, she learns that for More...
Product Description
Ever since she was teased for believing in fairies, Mellie has adopted a strictly scientific and logical approach to life. But when her parents inherit her grandfather's inn, she learns that for More...
Feb 26, 2011
Cathy
rated it: 
Fairy Lit seems to becoming a bona vide genre, if you can count the never ending series of Rainbow Fairy books. I thoroughly enjoyed The Night Fairy, and thought Small Persons with Wings sounded promising. Oh, how I ended up hating this book. The only thing good about it was the title - it was clever. The story however was a disaster. The biggest problem was that I could not tell who the book was intended for. It seems to be marked at the 4th-8th crowd, but it felt too me like an adult try
More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 21, 2011
Reader
rated it:
A charming little tale. Think of it as Diane Wynne Jones redux. Mellie's got a whole bunch of problems, but when it gets right down to it they probably all stem from one source: fairies. Except you shouldn't really call them that. Say "small persons with wings" instead, or you might find yourself on the receiving end of some pretty malignant little sprites. In Mellie's family if you're a Turpin then you're resigned to the fact that you may have to play host to some pretty temperam
More...
Mar 18, 2011
Annie
rated it: 
OK. I'm not going to lie. I read this book because it has glitter on the cover and got a great Horn Book review--but mostly because it has glitter on the cover. Yet it turned out to be a fantastic book that actually had more depth than I was expecting. Yes, there are fairies, but a lot of the action revolves around this group of fairies trying to decide whether to keep the magic they have that allows them to create complete artifice and amazing, imaginative illusions that they can live in (even
More...
Jan 20, 2012
Nancy
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Apr 02, 2011
Brandy
rated it:
Review originally posted here.
They call themselves the Parvi Pennati. Whatever you do, don't call them fairies (they hate to be called fairies). They may be minuscule, but they are temperamental, and making them mad could result in serious injury. This makes life difficult if you're a member of the family that is the guardian of thesefairies S.P.W.W.s. And life is already difficult enough for Mellie Turpin. With these ingredients, Ellen Booraem has concocted a delightfully witty
More...
They call themselves the Parvi Pennati. Whatever you do, don't call them fairies (they hate to be called fairies). They may be minuscule, but they are temperamental, and making them mad could result in serious injury. This makes life difficult if you're a member of the family that is the guardian of these
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 24, 2011
Beth
rated it:
Last June, my parents jumped off a roof because of a pinky ring.
So begins Mellie's story, and then she quickly jumps back several years to the day she told her kindergarten classmates that she had a real live fairy (except they hate to be called fairies, they are "Small Persons with Wings") named Fidius at home. She was going to show everybody that it was true, but Fidius got angry and abandoned her instead, leaving her to years of taunting and bullying from her classmates. More...
So begins Mellie's story, and then she quickly jumps back several years to the day she told her kindergarten classmates that she had a real live fairy (except they hate to be called fairies, they are "Small Persons with Wings") named Fidius at home. She was going to show everybody that it was true, but Fidius got angry and abandoned her instead, leaving her to years of taunting and bullying from her classmates. More...
Mar 10, 2011
Gwen the Librarian
rated it: 
This was an enjoyable enough book, but every time I put it down I had to force myself to pick it back up. While well-written and a great premise, for some reason the characters or story just weren't doing it for me. I was bummed because Booraem's The Unnameables is one of my favorites.
Set in modern times and in an otherwise realistic world, this is the story of Mellie and her family who are care-takers of fairies and have been since the days of Charlemagne. Mellie had a fairy when s More...
Set in modern times and in an otherwise realistic world, this is the story of Mellie and her family who are care-takers of fairies and have been since the days of Charlemagne. Mellie had a fairy when s More...
Jul 22, 2011
Phoebe
rated it:
After a traumatic experience in kindergarten, Mellie's school years have been unhappy ones. Ordinary issues such as sensitivity about her weight and no friends certainly add to her misery, but she has other problems: she can see fairies. Then her shop teacher parents inherit a pub after her ornery unloved grandfather dies, and it turns out to be teeming with fairies, the Parvi Pennati, (Latin for Small Persons with Wings) and not only that, her family has been guardians of the Parvi for gener
More...
Jul 02, 2011
your neighborhood librarian
rated it:
Mellie, the main character in Small Persons with Wings, is not faux awkward. She is "not-skinny," and "not-blonde," the only child of two artists/shop teachers, and she has been teased mercilessly since kindergarten for telling her class about the fairy in her bedroom. Since then, she's cultivated a relentlessly intellectual, systematic view of the world that has further isolated her from her peers.
We'd feel pretty terrible for Mellie, but she is a genuinely resil More...
We'd feel pretty terrible for Mellie, but she is a genuinely resil More...
Jan 05, 2012
Cinnamon
rated it:
Mellie has always lived with a fairy (they like to be called Small Persons with Wings). They are best friends, until the day that she tells her classmates about Fidious. He leaves her to be teased and ridiculed by the kids when she can't show him off to them. The bullying she suffers at school continues right up to 7th grade when her family inherits an old inn from her grandfather and move from Boston. To combat the abuse, Mellie has refused to believe in anything that she cannot directly se
More...
Dec 23, 2011
C.H.O.M.P
rated it:
This book was disappointing! >:( I thought it would be a fun read. I was literally waiting for something, ANYTHING, good to happen. It never did come. And since I've read another book that is fairies involved (though this is Small Persons with Wings) I thought it would be just as good. Boy was that wrong! The characters were boring, unrealistic, lame, not interesting, and not entertaining enough! I thought I liked the fairy (Small Person with Wings but I'll just stick to fairy cause I'm M-A-D
More...
May 23, 2011
Childrens
rated it:
I really liked it. When Mellie Turpin's grandfather dies and leaves her family his run-down inn and bar, she learns that for generations her family members have been fairy guardians, and now that the fairies want an important ring returned, the Turpins become involved in a series of magical adventures as they try to locate the missing ring. It has a spunky, believable young girl who is overweight and picked on at school because of her size and that she believes in fairies (excuse me “small pers
More...
Feb 21, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it:
We're all sick of vampires right now. We're also a little tired of zombies and don’t even TALK to me about angels. A couple years ago you could have said the same about child wizards. Fantasy trends, you see, are fickle and fleeting. One trend that somehow hasn’t managed to become annoying ubiquitous, however, is the fairy trend. In spite of the vast popularity of the Rainbow Fairies series, fairy books for kids and teens come out in spurts and starts. No single fairy has managed to cross
More...
8 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 10, 2011
Kat
rated it:
Mellie Turpin has been suffering for her entire school career. Not only has she always been teased about being overweight, but she made the mistake of promising her kindergarten class that she’d bring in Fidius, her fairy friend, for show-and-tell. When Fidius disappeared the night before show-and-tell, Mellie was declared a liar and earned the sticky nickname “Fairy Fat.”
Now that she’s thirteen, Mellie has learned to suppress her imagination, but she’s still smart and overweight and More...
Now that she’s thirteen, Mellie has learned to suppress her imagination, but she’s still smart and overweight and More...
Apr 07, 2011
Chelsea
rated it:
Aside from the rather confusing bits of fairy lore, I enjoyed this tale of a very normal family - realistically underachieving, overweight, and happy! Mellie and her art teacher parents find themselves in the middle of a complicated fairy problem when Mellie's grandpere "dies" and they inherit his fairy-infested inn. Mellie is a funny, realistically self-conscious pre-teen, and her budding friendship with space-geek Timmo from next door, as well as her struggles with her alcoholic gran
More...
Apr 03, 2011
Karen
rated it:
Finished this one some time back but forgot to update it to read status. Though YA fiction will always be my favorite when it comes to youth books, I've been trying to read a little younger too. Small Persons with Wings is definitely for the younger crowd, 5th to 6th grade, I'd say.
Our main charater, Mellie, cruelly nicknamed "Fairy Fat" by her jerk classmates, learned to squelch her imaginative mind early. Her best friend in Kindergarten was Fidius, a small person with More...
Our main charater, Mellie, cruelly nicknamed "Fairy Fat" by her jerk classmates, learned to squelch her imaginative mind early. Her best friend in Kindergarten was Fidius, a small person with More...
Apr 02, 2011
Shazzer
rated it:
As posted on Outside of a Dog:
I have always loved fairy tales. When I was a child, I absorbed the stories of the fairy land of Oz, and as an adult I have devoured and dissected the tales of Andrew Lang, the Brothers Grimm and other legends from around the world. There is something about the fairy tale, whether it involves fairies or not, that endures, and something about that fascinates me. In the case of Ellen Booraem’s Small Persons with Wings, we’re dealing with fairies (more o More...
I have always loved fairy tales. When I was a child, I absorbed the stories of the fairy land of Oz, and as an adult I have devoured and dissected the tales of Andrew Lang, the Brothers Grimm and other legends from around the world. There is something about the fairy tale, whether it involves fairies or not, that endures, and something about that fascinates me. In the case of Ellen Booraem’s Small Persons with Wings, we’re dealing with fairies (more o More...
Mar 13, 2011
Danyelle
rated it:
I *loved* this story. I liked that the MC knew what it was like to be hurt, to be bullied. That she wasn't perfect and beautiful. I believe she describes her family as round, but she doesn't necessarily have a totally negative feel to her body shape. There is a point when she's tempted to wish to be skinny (she was nicknamed Fairy Fat all through school), but she realizes how superficial that would be. I like that she and her mom look at rounder figures as grandeur, rather than spending all her
More...
Jan 25, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
This story begins back in kindergarten with Mellie and Fidius, the fairy (sorry...Small Person with Wings - they hate to be called fairies). Fidius lives with Mellie's family and sleeps on her pillow at night. They play together and he turns her food into things that look much better (though still taste the same). When Mellie starts having a hard time in school, not being the skinniest kid or the most popular, she decides to bring Fidius to class for show and tell. Fidius, however, decides he do
More...
Jun 27, 2011
Jessica
rated it:
Mellie (full name: Melissa Angelica Turpin) had a small person with wings (don't call them fairies!) once, named Fidius. He turned her summer squash to candy corn, made her My Little Pony gallop around the room, and disappeared her Legos. But all goes awry when Mellie tells the other girls at school that she has a fairy at home, who sleeps on her pillow and is cold as ice. Fidius grows angry that Mellie treats him as a pet, and disappears, but not before giving Mellie a frostbite handprint on
More...
May 17, 2011
Patti
rated it:
Good story about Mellie, who as a very young child, has a fairy friend. When she promises to show him to her Kindergarten class, he disappears, and she is picked on until 8th gr., when she moves. Her grandfather has died, and her parents inherit his old inn. It is infested with fairies! Mellie finds out from her parents that their family watches out for the fairies and guards the secret of their existence. Mellie, grown caustic and suspicious from being an outcast, is quite funny as she deals wi
More...
Jul 01, 2011
Becky
rated it:
I was disappointed in this book. The cover and title are jump-off-the-shelf great, and I knew it was well reviewed, but it just didn't do it for me. I had to make myself finish, but was rewarded for doing so, because I really did like the ending...very satisfying. I liked the character of Mellie, another very smart, but not very attractive or cool girl who is ostracized by her peers and I really liked Timmo. I got bogged down though about 2/3s of the way because, in my mind, the fantasy just wen
More...
Jan 12, 2012
Jane
rated it:
Ever since she was teased for believing in fairies, Mellie has adopted a strictly scientific and logical approach to life. But when her parents inherit her grandfather's inn, she learns that for generations, her family members have been fairy guardians. The fairies exchanged some of their powers for this protection but now they want their magic back. An evil temptress in disguise wants the magic too, and before she knows it, Mellie is turned into a frog and her grandfather is discovered alive. T
More...
Mar 16, 2011
Audrey
rated it:
Don't call them fairies.
The Parvi Pennati are bonded to 13-year-old Mellie Turpin's family. In exchange for a magical stone that lets them discern the truth, the family provides a safe haven for these cranky, selfish, vain small persons with wings. After years of being called "Fairy Fat" both for her figure and for promising to bring a live fairy to school as a kindergartner, she's ready to get away when her family inherits her grandfather's old estate. However, the Parv More...
The Parvi Pennati are bonded to 13-year-old Mellie Turpin's family. In exchange for a magical stone that lets them discern the truth, the family provides a safe haven for these cranky, selfish, vain small persons with wings. After years of being called "Fairy Fat" both for her figure and for promising to bring a live fairy to school as a kindergartner, she's ready to get away when her family inherits her grandfather's old estate. However, the Parv More...
