Dragonfly Secret

She can't talk or grant wishes. She has a broken wing. But Willow the fairy works her magic simply by appearing with a shimmering flutter to two children and their grumpy grandfather. This promising first novel is a clever combination of fantasy and modern-day family drama. Gramps lives with narrator Nathan, Jessie and their mother, but Aunt Louise insists Gramps should be in a retirement home. On the same day the fairy appears, a psychologist comes to evaluate Gramps's sanity. Despite the children's precaustions, Gramps is overheard saying that he believes in fairies and then refuses to retract the remark. The author makes a few small missteps. The otherwise graceful finale, in which the family travels to Gramps's old farm to set Willow free, is muddled by unanswered questions: Will the family move to the old farm? Will Aunt Louise accept the psychologist's recommendation? Still, Gold's delicate fairy world is charming, a throwback to the tiny prancing fairies of 19th-century literature who dwell among the dewdrops, sipping nectar and placing their babies in the very center of a yellow rose. ""A tear slid down Jessie's cheek, and Willow touched that, too, chirping softly as if to say it was all right.... Willow swooped away, out over the center of the spring, and I heard the buzzing of wings from the reeds along the banks."" Ages 8-12. (May)