I was first introduced to the Pixie Tricks series by my local librarian as I was looking for something for my daughter to read. This set of books tells the story of fourteen pixies who have escaped from their fairy kingdom and have come into our world, determined to cause trouble wherever they go. Sprite is a fairy and is also a Royal Pixie Tricker. He has been sent to round up the pixies and send them back where they came from. But each pixie has to be tricked in a different way, and he needs some help.
Violet Briggs is a little girl from our world who stumbles across Sprite one day. She agrees to help him, and with the aid of her cousin Leon, they track down the pixies, trick them, and send them back where they belong.
One of my daughter’s favorites in this series is #2: The Greedy Gremlin. Leon has been playing his video games just a little too much lately. Jolt, the greedy gremlin, wants to play too, and sends Leon into the video game so he can have it all to himself! With Jolt running the controls, it seems that there’s no way to get Leon out. Sprite looks it up in his Book of Tricks. It says: Jolt can play all video games, he has a special knack. But only if he reads from a book, will you send him back.” Violet and Sprite trick Jolt into reading a book, and they are able to free Leon from the game.
Another favorite is #5: The Angry Elf. Fixit has been causing all sorts of trouble in town, breaking the toys. Robots are crying and ballerina dolls are mooing like cows. Another sprite, Rusella, is having fun too – mixing up everyone’s messages so they are late all the time! The Book of Tricks says, “Fixit is filled with anger and bile. To trick this elf, you must make him smile.” About Rusella, it says, “Rusella’s mixed-up messages are annoying for sure. A bowl of alphabet soup is the only real cure!” Together Sprite and Violet manage to trick both pixies and bring the confusion to an end.
I like these books because they are the first chapter books my daughter sat down to read on her own, without any prodding from me. Now she’s a confirmed reader, set on the path of literacy. She says: “The Pixie Tricks books are very fun. It seems tricky to trick the pixies, especially ones like Jolt and Finn. Some of them are easier to trick, like Ragamuffin and Buttercup. If you want to know totally about it, then how about you read the book? It can sometimes be found in the library.”
(This series is published by Scholastic.)