This could have been a great book, because it's a fascinating true story. In 1917, Frances moved to England to live with her older cousin Elsie and her family. One day the girls were playing in the field behind the house, and Frances swears that she sees fairies frolicking around. (Interestingly enough, even to her dying day, she maintained that her sightings were real.) On a whim, Elsie, who is an artist, draws a fairy, mounts it on a hat pin, and asks to take the family's camera into the field. (At this time, the camera is a new invention, and it's very complicated to get even one good photo.) They pretend the fairy photo is real, and show the photo to their family.They take a few more in this manner, and it eventually catches the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes novels. He believes they are real, and begins communicating with the girls, who are a little freaked out by all this attention. They become known nationwide. Some are believers, but others denounce the girls as frauds.
I loved the story. The fact that these girls caused such a ruckus with a painted fairy on a stick is hilarious. There were just a few areas that I felt needed further clarification from the author. Several times it seemed there had to be more to the story, but we, as readers, weren't getting it. A kind of cool read anyway, just to get the details on this famous hoax.
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