The Fairy God Librarian

I was drowsing in a stuffy old armchair beside my window when I hear a sharp crack, as if something had grabbed onto either side of reality and ripped it apart.

My eyes popped open. I looked up.

There, smiling down at me through large round eye glasses, stood a luminescent figure of indeterminate age. A fringe of silver hair fluttered around a cherubic face and an enormous bowtie festooned with punctuation marks sprung like the wings of a butterfly from either side of his chin.

“Good evening,” he said, his voice as gentle as the sound talcum powder makes when sprinkled on our toes.

I blinked.

“Who …What …?”

Story Continues Below Adverts

He wiggled his fingers as though limbering them up to play the piano and announced, “I am your Fairy God Librarian.”

I have wanted many things in life, some of which I don’t deserve, but never on that list had I put a Fairy God Librarian. I crossed my arms over my chest and harrumphed skeptically, “Next you’ll be telling me that I get three wishes.”

“Not three,” He said thoughtfully. “Just one.” Then he turned toward the bookshelves lining my wall. “It is a special kind of a wish. Very, very special. Because you get to make a wish-list of books!”

My eyes followed his to the shelves. I shook my head and pouted, “But I already have all of the books that I need. All of the books that I love.”

“Yes.” He nodded, smiling. “That is why I have come to you. The wish I am granting is for you to put on the shelves of all those people who don’t know which books to buy, the ones that you want them to have. Not only books for grownups. Books for children, too. So that they can be enchanted, excited, terrified, reassured, inspired, and thrilled in the same way that you were, when you were growing up.”

I leapt to my feet and reached out to grab that endearing apparition by the shoulders. I wanted to give him a big, grateful hug. But my arms went right through him! What my Fairy God Librarian possessed in charm he certainly lacked in tangibility.

“You really want me to make that list?” I exclaimed. “Really? Really? Really?”

“Scouts honor,” he said, his smiled followed by a low chuckle.

And so, my friends, here is my first, incomplete, wish-list of books. It is limited to British, French, and American authors. Some are classics. Some are just terrific reads. All would be wonderful additions to your bookshelf.

BRITISH ISLES

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

Story Continues Below Adverts

Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Dracula - Bram Stoker

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett