Hmm.
The story in this book is historically important, but I didn’t find it engaging, and am curious just how/why this was published.
Let me start more formally. Once Upon a Fairy Tale House is a 2023 picture book, written by Mary Lyn Ray and illustrated by Giselle Potter. It tells, as the subtitle indicates, “The True Story of Four Sisters and the Magic They Built.” It is nice that these four sisters shared such a bond, and historically important and intrinsically important that they built what they called their “pixie cottages.” Few women were designing and building houses in the 1930s, and it is impressive that they followed their own vision.
However…the book is a bit wordy, and there’s minimal tension here. I don’t think kids are likely to grasp the period barriers to the sisters bringing their vision into being, and, again, things seem to just work out for the sisters.
The illustrations are clear, colorful, and pleasant, but don’t really evoke the “fairy tale magic” these cottages were said to express.
