FRANKIE AND THE CREEPY CUTE CRITTERS

Can a scary fairy find acceptance among her cute counterparts?

With cornflower-blue skin, a big poof of dark-blue hair, bat wings, and a nose shaped like an upside-down heart, Frankie Fairy lives with her biology-professor mother. They have just moved, and Frankie is the new kid at Mosstown Elementary. Frankie loves all things nature, which she fastidiously records in her field guide, occasional views of which impart facts and her findings for readers. With her big, warm personality, she greets her new classmates—but they aren’t receptive, finding her fangs and wings so different from their insectile ones. Dismayed, Frankie takes a walk in the woods with Tuna, her pet wooly bear, befriending a garter snake and a baby opossum that’s lost its mother. Frankie shares her experiences with her mom, who gives her good advice, buoying her enough to help her assert herself with her classmates. Boyle’s alluringly vibrant, full-colored graphic offering is an engaging and fresh take on a friendship tale. With her keenly attentive face, Frankie grabs readers, and her big heart and zest for life and nature are positively infectious. Although the humanoid characters are all fairies, they display a great deal of diversity in skin and hair coloring.

An affirming tale of friendship that is both quirky and adorable.