The Fairy’s Mistake by Gail Carson Levine is a sweet childhood story, similar to Toads and Diamonds, In the story you come across a young maiden who kindly gives an old woman by a well a drink. That woman happens to be the fairy Erthlinda and she decides to give Rosella a gift for her kindness. The next time Rosella opens her mouth to speak she discovers that jewels fall out of her mouth. The more she talks, the more jewels she produces. Her mother and twin sister are vile, greedy creatures who treat Rosella terribly and her sister Myrtle decides to go to the well to look for the fairy. When Myrtle arrives at the well the old woman is no longer there, but instead a handsome knight in armour greets her. The knight asks Myrtle for a drink and she very rudely refuses to help him, so the knight who is actually the fairy decides that Myrtle needs to be punished. Myrtle then discovers that every time she speaks all kinds of creepy, crawly creatures begin to slither out of her mouth. Surely with all of the strange things happening, nothing else could go wrong.
Rosella is soon married to a prince, but he seems to only be interested in her jewels. Myrtle is receiving everything that she wants by tormenting the people in the village with her never-ending swarm of creepy, crawly creatures. The fairy Erthlinda has made a terrible mistake but she has no idea how to fix it. Her spells have both seemed to backfire on her. Erthlinda must come up with a plan to correct the mistake she made before something even worse happens.
The Fairy’s Mistake is a short little story and has been a favourite of mine since I was little. There are many funny scenes and a few small drawings of scenes in the book that made me laugh out loud. I was amazed with the story when I was younger because I never could have imagined anyone being happy about being able to summon bugs and snakes from their mouth. The language in the book is amazingly easy to grasp onto for younger children, and the story will have them hooked until the end. It really makes a fantastic bedtime story and shares a strong message that even adults, or fairies, can make mistakes. As always questions and comments are welcome!