The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World

by Mary Losure Narrated by Nicola Barber

Overview

This is a true story about Frances, age nine, who saw fairies by the waterfall behind her house.

They were tiny men, dressed all in green. Nobody but Frances saw them, but when she told her cousin Elsie and their parents, the adults teased them in a most annoying way.

Why not take a photograph? Elsie (who was fifteen) had the idea. She would paint paper fairies and take their picture with Frances, and none would be the wiser.

The girls never meant to fool the world. They only took the photo so the grown-ups would stop teasing them.

Who could have imagined that Elsie's photograph would fall into the hands of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes? Or that Sir Arthur, like Frances, believed in fairies...and longed to see one?

In a wry feat of narrative nonfiction, reporter Mary Losure tells the remarkable tale of “two amiable adventuresses” that is almost- ?but not quite-too good to be true.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In 1920, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published photographs in the widely read Strand magazine that he believed proved the existence of fairies. The pictures had been taken a few years earlier by two cousins, nine-year-old Frances Griffiths and 15-year-old Elsie Wright. Tired of adults teasing them about Frances seeing fairies, Elsie borrowed her father’s camera and produced photos showing the girls interacting with dainty winged creatures in the valley behind Elsie’s house. After experts declared the pictures genuine and Conan Doyle’s article appeared, it wasn’t long before events spiraled out of control and led to a myth that lasted more than 60 years. Losure’s first book for children details the events that led the girls to their fame and adds the personal recollections of those involved from their own later writings. Accompanied by the famous photos, the story is written in an accessible narrative style that includes the attitudes of the time and explains historical items like the use of hatpins and how cameras of the period worked. An intriguing glimpse into a photo-doctoring scandal well before the advent of Photoshop. Ages 10–up. (Mar.)¦

From the Publisher

From the bottle-green cover showing Elsie dreamily regarding a fairy to the book's creamy pages and art-nouveau lettering, "The Fairy Ring" is as delightful to hold as it is captivating to read.
—The Wall Street Journal

The yearning for the supernatural and the magical to be real seems timeless. In the early years of the twentieth century it was fairies that intrigued, especially those in a handful of photographs made by two girls in England...Losure has written an engaging account of the affair, focusing sympathetically on the two young photographers, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright... Losure provides a straightforward narrative that gives young readers a sense of the girls’ different personalities; the girls’ daily life in WWI Yorkshire; and the type of small events that may well have provoked them to stage the photographs.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

Losure’s elegant and charmingly formal prose makes palpable the girls’ loss of control as their fame spirals ever wider... The photos themselves are included and, like the astonishing true story, they are simultaneously silly and haunting.
—Booklist (starred review)

The book does a lovely job of portraying the youngsters in a well-rounded way; Losure does not shy away from clearly stating that they lied, but also takes time to demonstrate their motivations behind creating (and sustaining) the hoax... The inclusion of the actual photographs and correspondences between the two girls and the two men who wished to prove to the world that fairies exist add depth and reality to the story. This is well-written nonfiction that reads like a novel; former fans and secret believers of fairy stories will thoroughly enjoy this account of how two girls fooled the world.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Losure’s first book for children details the events that led the girls to their fame and adds the personal recollections of those involved from their own later writings. Accompanied by the famous photos, the story is written in an accessible narrative style that includes the attitudes of the time and explains historical items like the use of hatpins and how cameras of the period worked. An intriguing glimpse into a photo-doctoring scandal well before the advent of Photoshop.
—Publishers Weekly

The remarkable, true story of a fairy hoax successfully perpetrated by two young girls in the early 1900s offers a fascinating examination of human nature.
—Kirkus Reviews

Though nonfiction, this well-paced book is presented in narrative form with imagined dialogue. The original Cottingley fairy photographs, some of Elsie’s previously unpublished drawings, letters, and images from family archives round out the book... Despite the years that have passed since the sensation the pictures caused, and the truth coming out, the whimsical story of two young girls who were tired of being teased remains compelling.
—VOYA

Losure explores this historical event in a narrative that reads like a novel, keeping the focus tightly on the experience of young cousins Elsie and, especially, Frances as they move from an in-family bit of mischief to justify outdoor play to a claim that they must increasingly invest in as the stakes become higher and higher.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A remarkably good account of the Cottingley fairies. In a style that's straightforward, elegant, and sympathetic, Ms Losure tells the story as each of the two girls saw it - but this exercise in imagination is based entirely on first-hand sources, and illustrated with high-definition prints of the notorious photographs.
—The Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London

Told with a fairy tale's sense of magic, the book at times feels like historical fiction and other times like biography — with actual letters and photographs to supplement the narrative.
—Star Tribune

School Library Journal - Audio

Gr 4–8—This is the true tale of Elsie Wright, 15, and Frances Griffith, 9, who concocted a fairy hoax in the early 1900s that grew well beyond their expectations. Tired of being teased by their parents for their stories, Elsie painted and then cut out detailed illustrations of fairies. The girls photographed the "fairies" with themselves in the picture. When Elsie's mother mentioned at a Theosophist meeting that her daughter had taken a picture of fairies, the hoax quickly escalated. A number of adults, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, promoted the photos as the real deal. Mary Losure's narrative account does an excellent job of explaining how a childish fabrication became an international sensation in her intriguing book (Candlewick, 2012). Narrator Nicola Barber provides excellent pacing, unique voices for the girls, and an inviting tone that will maintain listeners' attention. Have the book available so listeners can peruse the fascinating photos and drawing.—Deanna Romriell, Salt Lake City Public Library, UT

MAY 2012 - AudioFile

The verb “read” doesn’t do justice to Nicola Barber’s recording of THE FAIRY RING. She’s a vector connecting the listener to every detail of the story behind the famous fairy photographs. Not only do listeners hear about the girls behind the hoax but also about the social forces that incited the whole affair. Barber describes England, and the hardships of WWI, with immediacy. Her facile command of accents highlights the class distinctions, which play a key role in perpetuating the deception. Every word is imbued with life so that each angle of the story is vivid and enthralling: the technological advances, the quest to scientifically prove the existence of fairies, and the girls’ steadfast secrecy. Seldom is nonfiction so fanciful, compelling, or well paced. A.M.P Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

The remarkable, true story of a fairy hoax successfully perpetrated by two young girls in the early 1900s offers a fascinating examination of human nature. It began innocently enough; cousins Frances, 9, and Elsie, 15, took pictures of cutout paper fairies in order to get their families to stop teasing Frances, who claimed to have seen real ones in the woods behind their house. It escalated when Elsie's mother mentioned at a Theosophist meeting that her daughter had taken a picture of fairies, perhaps not anticipating the ensuing furor. Eventually, a number of otherwise intelligent adults came to believe these photos were real, most prominent among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's an incredible story, but this compelling account explains step-by-step how the situation escalated; as time went on, more people became personally and financially invested, and it was increasingly difficult for the girls to consider coming clean. The narrative is matter-of-fact and reserves judgment on the perpetrators as well as their credulous public. The fairy photos are reproduced, allowing readers to see exactly what people at the time saw. This addition to the pantheon of great hoaxes, such as The War of the Worlds Halloween broadcast, reveals a perpetual human fascination with the supernatural and a strong desire to believe in the unseen. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169587555
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	03/27/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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