Enjoy the classic, complete collection of Cicely Mary Barker's original Flower Fairies books in this brand-new edition. This collector's favorite has been redesigned and now features a lavish, eye-catching jacket with silver foil. The interior still includes all of the well-loved illustrations and poems from Barker's eight original books, as well as a selection of fairy rhymes.
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Cicely Mary Barker was born in Croydon, South London in 1895 and died in 1973. She found international acclaim as an artist with her delightful Flower Fairies books the first of which, Flower Fairies of the Spring, was printed in 1923.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
SPRING MAGIC
The World is very old; But year by year It groweth new again When buds appear.
The World is very old, And sometimes sad; But when the daisies come The World is glad.
The World is very old; But every Spring It groweth young again, And fairies sing.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
235 of 241 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Now I'm an adult who ran across the book just a little while ago. I have always loved fairies, but was not really into the horrid interpretations of modern day artiest. This book is so amazing it's unreal! The artwork is so beautiful and delicate. She painted them as beautiful wide-eyed children and adolescents, with absolutely amazing accuracy on the accompanying flowers. The poems for each flower fairy describes the chararistics of the flower with such grace it sends chills up my spine. A WONDERFUL book for parents to read to their children, as well as a great book for adults who want to stay children at heart. I can not express enough the beauty and gentleness of her artwork enough! The book here contains all 8 of the Flower Fairies books as well as story of The Fairy Necklaces and the poems she illustrated for Old Rimes for All Times. You will not be disapointed.
101 of 104 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I certainly wouldn't have rated this series of fairy books as the typical browsing material of your regular guy aged 18 - 25. Football statistics ... sure! Music weekly ... absolutely! Whimsical directories of flowers and their corresponding fairy folk ... Hmnnn, not likely.
And yet 20 years ago, in the village bookshop, Cranleigh, Surrey, England, I accidentally selected the Flower Fairies of Summer, more or less at random, from a stack on a table at the back of the cave-esque Dickensian little shop. I was instantly captivated and placed under the spell of the Folk of the pages within. The illustrations were literally spell-binding!
Over the next few years I collected them all and referred to them often for my own aspirations to illustrate. The little characters are quite beguiling in their environmental surroundings. Sadly, my collection was lost in a move and when I tried to replace them I found they were discontinued! I was aghast! Irked, that such a superb collection should be out of print and was thoroughly cheesed off with the publishing industry at large.
Then, in 1998, I was overjoyed to find a superb collection of the entire set, beautifully bound and packaged in a ribbon-tied box in a shop in Chichester. I readily shelled out the not insignificant sum of Ł55.00 (+/- $80.00) and it now takes pride of place on my shelves. I look through them often.
It is therefore with great enthusiasm that I encourage everyone reading this review to become acquainted with the works of Cicely Mary Barker, for themselves and their children, and of course, the children in themselves. The books are quite magical!
51 of 51 people found the following review helpful
By Lillith
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If this were the only edition of the 'flower fairies' books I had ever seen, I'd be as enthusiastic as other reviewers here. But that's just it - as publishers (Blackie and later Warner) made their various editorial decisions about cropping and omitting fairies from their different editions, they never saw fit to warn the reader about it, so a new reader has no way of knowing. I find that very unsatisfactory.
If you go to 'flowerfairyprints.com' you'll find a full list of the fairies that belonged originally to each volume, and see just how much has been lost here. It didn't start with Warne, this habit of omitting etc, but it's certainly continued by them. So: a number of fairies are missing from the summer collection and the wayside collection, and the fairies of the alphabet collection have been cropped a lot in some cases to fit in a smaller space - as marginal illustrations instead of full-page (e.g. 'King cup' picture has only one elf instead of two).
I don't understand why Warne has not chosen to bring out an edition that has ALL the fairies in the good-quality reproductions they know how to do (see their 'Deluxe' volume, which has almost all the missing fairies' pictures, only 'goose-grass getting no mention at all, but by no means all the poems). As it is, if you want ALL pictures and poems in one book, and can't afford the first edition - which is v expensive to acquire, but I assume has them all) you have to buy editions of the '60s and 70s - before the 1985 Blackie edns (the '85 Blackie edn of 'summer' has a lot of omissions..I don't know about the others) These earlier edns do have ALL pictures and poems but have cropped the pictures somewhat anyway at the edges, and don't have such good-quality reproductions (in my opinion) as these latest ones by Warne.
If it doesn't bother you to miss out on some fairies, then by all means buy this volume. But for those of us who have known them all as children, it's upsetting to see some of them exiled and forgotten! I wonder what Ms Barker herself would have felt about the industry that has been made out of her work, with so little respect for the integrity of the whole.
If you go to 'flowerfairyprints.com' you'll find a full list of the fairies that belonged originally to each volume, and see just how much has been lost here. It didn't start with Warne, this habit of omitting etc, but it's certainly continued by them. So: a number of fairies are missing from the summer collection and the wayside collection, and the fairies of the alphabet collection have been cropped a lot in some cases to fit in a smaller space - as marginal illustrations instead of full-page (e.g. 'King cup' picture has only one elf instead of two).
I don't understand why Warne has not chosen to bring out an edition that has ALL the fairies in the good-quality reproductions they know how to do (see their 'Deluxe' volume, which has almost all the missing fairies' pictures, only 'goose-grass getting no mention at all, but by no means all the poems). As it is, if you want ALL pictures and poems in one book, and can't afford the first edition - which is v expensive to acquire, but I assume has them all) you have to buy editions of the '60s and 70s - before the 1985 Blackie edns (the '85 Blackie edn of 'summer' has a lot of omissions..I don't know about the others) These earlier edns do have ALL pictures and poems but have cropped the pictures somewhat anyway at the edges, and don't have such good-quality reproductions (in my opinion) as these latest ones by Warne.
If it doesn't bother you to miss out on some fairies, then by all means buy this volume. But for those of us who have known them all as children, it's upsetting to see some of them exiled and forgotten! I wonder what Ms Barker herself would have felt about the industry that has been made out of her work, with so little respect for the integrity of the whole.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
For the Fairy Lover
This collection of Baker's flower fairies is so beautiful! She matches each fairy to a flower and gives them a poem in this great book.
Published 8 days ago by Jayj
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and magical book
I became interested in this book while creating a fairy garden for my grandchildren. It's a beautifully illustrated book and fun to share with my granddaughter.
Published 16 days ago by J. Brooks
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
What a great book this is. Very well put together. I am sure Cicely would be proud. Good companion book to "Girls quilt to Flower Fairies". Read more
Published 18 days ago by mary nitzsche
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful pictures - I just wish they hadn't cut the figures out.
Although the picture quality of the paintings is very good, for some reason the publishers chose to cut out some of the fairy figures (removing the backgrounds) in several of the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by B Robin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Book
I fell in love with this watercolor artist. I purchased this book along with two others and the coloring book.
Published 1 month ago by Linda Hardman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recreating my childhood, I suppose
I had Flower Fairy books when I was small, and have always loved Cicely Mary Barker's illustrations. They don't seem to age, and it's very nice to have all of them in one volume. Read more
Published 1 month ago by maggie labouisse
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasure to view, a delight to own.
This was a gift for my sister. She called and said that she LOVED the book. It was in good condition (used). I have a copy and I love it, too. The illustrations are exquisite. Read more
Published 3 months ago by heidi howard
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and classic
This is a nice collection to look through and the artwork is wonderful! (beautiful modestly drawn fairies) Nice to see so many different types of plants to learn about. Read more
Published 3 months ago by JJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Complete Book of the Flowers Fairies
This book is very nice .Beautiful water color illustrations and lovely poems.I was very pleased with my purchase and it arrived quite quickly.
Published 4 months ago by Kevin Stentiford
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful
The poems and illustrations are just gorgeous. No wonder they are still popular today. A very special book that we treasure.
Published 4 months ago by Clare Cottreau
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