Spiderwort and the Princess of Haiku

The Fairy Chronicles #5

by J.H. Sweet, Holly Sierra (Illustrator)

Illustrations Tara Larsen Chang

Inside you is the power to do anything

The Princess of Haiku, keeper of simple pleasures, has been kidnapped by her archenemies the Specter of Pandemonium and the Phantom of Excess, who currently inhabit two Ogre sisters, Plethora and Chaotica Glut. Simple pleasures everywhere are in danger.

Guided only by a strange riddle given to them by an oak tree, Spiderwort, along with Rosemary, Periwinkle and Cinnabar, have only a little while to find the Princess and get her to safety. As always the fairies will have a little magical assistance this time from a well-meaning Scarecrow and the already ghostly Minstrel of Epic Poems.

A world without simple pleasures would be unbearable and it has already started with the children of the world. If it should leave the adults as well, it might very well be gone for good. Luckily for everyone, fairies are the best problem solvers around and Spiderwort is one of the fastest thinking of them all!

What if you discovered you had magical fairy powers? Meet the girls of The Fairy Chronicles, otherwise normal girls like you who are blessed by Mother Nature with special gifts. Their extraordinary adventures will change the world!

Genres: Childrens

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mahika]

“The Princess of Haiku is the Spirit of Simplicity.” Awesome

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that I’ve finished the first 13 books of this series, I’m going to go back to rate and review each one. I’ve not read beyond the first 13, and I don’t plan to. Because I yam who I yam and because this series is beloved from my childhood, I’m probably going to be more thorough than necessary for a relatively unknown series for seven-year-olds. These reviews will contain very mild spoilers – nothing beyond what is mentioned in the blurb on the back or on goodreads – unless otherwise stated.

2.75/5 stars

In Spiderwort and the Princess of Haiku, the fairy team features none of the original four fairies. The team for this book instead features the return of Periwinkle (aka Vinca) from the main four of the last book, as well as the up-until-now background characters, Spiderwort (aka Jensen) and Rosemary (aka Bailey). They’re joined by a new fairy, Cinnabar (aka Helen), and supervised by Spiderwort’s godmother and fairy mentor, Madam Chameleon (aka Kathy). From this book onward, the girls’ human names are used so infrequently that I really only know them by their fairy names. The four girls and Madam Chameleon are tasked with finding the Princess of Haiku, who has recently gone missing.

Admittedly, the title of this book, accompanied by the art of the Princess of Haiku on the back of the book made me wary. After Periwinkle was introduced in the last book, with her questionable Native American representation (which I will expound upon in my review for Periwinkle and the Cave of Courage), I was certainly worried about what kind of microaggressions and stereotypes we’d get in this book. I am not Japanese, so I can’t truly speak to how well or poorly J.H. Sweet handled the Princess of Haiku, but I will say, things were not as bad as I feared. The Princess of Haiku takes her name from the haiku’s focus on appreciation of simple pleasures, as she is also known as The Spirit of Simplicity. She acts as a counterbalance to excess and pandemonium. There was certainly an oversimplification of haiku as an art form, but I’m not sure if I should entirely fault Sweet for that, or place some of the blame on the West’s understanding of haiku in general.

An aside about something that made me more annoyed than it probably should have: the book also featured commentary on the art of epic poetry that I found infuriating. Significant plot spoiler warning: A character called the bard represents epic poetry. He is essentially a ghost, due to the lack of epic poetry published in recent decades. He says, “A few epic poems have been written in recent ages, but none have become classics because there is not the heart and soul poured into them like the poetry of old” (p. 67). While I agree that epic poetry is largely a dead art form, I despise the reasoning provided. Lack of heart and soul are not the reasons that epic poetry has not pervaded into modern times. To say to the authors that have put extensive work into writing something as long as an epic poem haven’t imbued it with heart and soul is a disservice and insulting. Not to mention the scholars that continually work to provide updated translations of epics such as Beowulf or the first-ever English translations of lesser known epics! Are they not pouring their heart and soul into that work? Gah!

I did genuinely appreciate this book’s emphasis on finding joy in simple pleasures. That’s something I have been actively working on for myself, so that aspect of the book hit me at just the right time. The plot of this book was fine, featuring riddles to puzzle out and a scavenger hunt.

I have to be honest, it took me a few seconds before I could remember anything about the titular character, Spiderwort. She’s depicted as one of the smart fairies, as her fairy gift gives her cleverness, the ability to come up with good plans and ideas, as well as good problem-solving skills, but she didn’t really stand out to me against the other three smart fairies. Perhaps it’s because three of the four smart fairies (including Spiderwort) have similar physical designs as well. Like, Rosemary and Spiderwort have so many similarities that I struggle to tell them apart.

Various minor spoilery things that I liked (and didn’t like) in this book include:
- I liked how the Princess of Haiku handled the ogres. Also the ogres in general. They were fun.
- I don’t really get why brownie twins have silly nicknames in addition to their actual names. That one confused me. But, I did like the brownie twins and how one of them took a liking to Cinnabar.
- This is the first book where the illustrations (aside from the cover art) are done by Holly Sierra instead of Tara Larsen Chang, and I just don’t like Sierra’s art style as much. Her art is less crisp and has less contrast in colors and values. I do really like the portrait of Cinnabar, however.
- Call me a boomer, but I agree with Sweet’s thesis here that simple pleasures are being neglected and that children (and adults) need to spend more time outside, appreciating things not on screens.
- I don’t think video games are inherently bad though, so didn’t love that Helen felt compelled to completely give them up.
- The reason the Princess of Haiku was in danger was dumb. Sweet could’ve just said it’s because children are more spoiled now or don’t care about going outside (which is flawed in its own right, but still), but she picked a dumber reason than that.

Overall, a decent plot with a message that comes from the right place, but that message was executed without nuance. Lots of oversimplification.

[Lion1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

💖Soo cute and interesting 💖
Lite🍀

[Evie]

Clearly this has been well-received by younger readers, so my adult opinion can't outshine their enjoyment, but I can't help but feel this is written very didactically. You can't possibly miss all the lessons and gentle warnings; it's clearly meant to be a teaching tool.

As for the writing, narrative details illustrate the world we're reading through, but have little to no real connection to the plot. I feel like the author is more pointing out details and leaving them be instead of bringing together a cohesive world. Something else that caught my attention, though, was how a brownie teases Cinnabar towards the end to the point of tears, and this is supposed to be flattering. When a boy is mean to you, it means he likes you, right? But it's just playing into the tired, troublesome view that girls are supposed to interpret abuse as flattering. Not into it.

All this criticism makes it sound like there's nothing good to be had in the book. There definitely is; I do appreciate the inclusion of many cultures and circumstances as it's very important for kids to see themselves in the story. There are important messages to be had, like the enjoyment of simple pleasures (even if I disagree with the fading of the Bard. Who's to say that Epic poems won't come back into style?). Even then, I can't really get behind this series. Sort of reminds me of Journey to Rainbow Island, where the story is meant to make you feel full of light, but feels too heavy-handed in its lessons.

But hey, give it to your kid if you're searching for a good, clean book about fairies and magic. It's because of that possibility that I won't give a starred review-- my opinion only goes so far on this one. I'll be giving my copy to an elementary school library so those little ones can enjoy themselves, and I'm sure they will.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth book in the Fairy Chronicles series, although they are meant to be read as stand-alone books. These tales have a moralistic message woven throughout the story and this one comes out and hits you on the head with it. The message is important, though and I like that it reinforces what I am always trying to tell our girls: the simple joys in life are the best. Despite the heavy-handed message, it is a fun tale and our oldest really enjoyed reading it. I read it after she did and we had fun talking about the plot of the story as well as its message. The illustrations are sparse, but fun, and we also enjoyed reading the additional information on haiku poems, chess and bobcats. I often find that I learn just as much as our girls do when we read books like this.

We discovered this series of books because our oldest is in the middle of a fairy craze right now. She has finished numerous series in the Rainbow Magic collection and she just loves them all. But these books are a bit longer, and more complicated in their plot lines and I think better overall. The characters are richer and the story is more sophisticated. So where our library has holes in the series, I expect that I will likely purchase the books and then we'll donate them when we are done.

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are a nice series of books for little girls. They are veri diadedic, but are well written and are filled with dreams that should appeal to most girls who are advancing to chapter books.

[Just_me · Rating 4 out of 5]

My little girl enjoyed this book and managed to learn loads too. It explains what a haiku, how to write one and how to work out how many syllables in a word. Brilliant!

[Chloe Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned that simple things are sometimes the best.

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book full of riddles.