Creating A World of Fairies . . .

My 8 year old neice lost a tooth the other week. As usual she placed the tooth under her pillow and went to sleep dreaming of the tooth fairy coming to replace her tooth with a shiny coin that she could spend. But the tooth wasn't the only thing she left. She also left a tiny little pad, and on each page was a question for the fairy.

It was such a sweet thing that my sister-in-law had to answer the questions, but there was a problem. My neice knew her handwriting and so she needed to come up with an alternative. Me.

I had a field day with this. I brought a little pad with a picture of a fairy on the front and I copied and answered each and every question. In doing so I actually created an entire world of fairies and their habitat, something that became so real in my mind that who knows where it could lead with future writing projects.

Allow me to share how the tooth fairy answered the questions of an 8 year old girl:

Why do you need our teeth?

Teeth have a lot of something called 'Calcium' inside them. We use this calcium to make other teeth and help all the animals out there who have toothaches or who need new teeth.

What do you eat?

We eat anything nature can give us.

What happens when you lose your teeth?
When we lose our teeth we put them with all the others that we have collected to help other animals in need.


Who takes your teeth away?

We are in charge of our own teeth and take them to the collection ourselves.

Do you have pets?

No, we don't have pets but we have many wild friends.

What do you make our teeth into?

We use the 'Calcium' in your teeth to make and mould or repair other teeth for all the animals.

Are you scared of anything?

No, but we are very shy which is why you never see us.

Do you have babies?

Yes we have families, and our young fairies go to fairy school to learn how to become good tooth fairies.

How big is your food?

Our food can be tiny nibbles to something much bigger than us depending on what we can find. We always cut it down to size and share.

Where do you get your powers?

Our powers come naturally to us, just like you can naturally talk, run around and climb trees.

How big is the world to you?

The world is a very big place to us, but when flying it doesn't take long to get round.

What are your houses like?

Some build houses with twigs and leaves. Others like to live in trees or bushes. Trees are our favourite places as they last a long time and keep us warm and cosy.

Do you live under mushrooms?

No, but we do like to play around them and use them as umbrellas when it rains.

What do you wear?

Spider webs make lovely silk and we use this to weave and make material which makes our clothes. We use flowers to make the material into different colours.

Who are your friends?

My best friend is another fairy called Taloula. She has long blonde hair and blue eyes. But I am also very good friends with other fairies and lots of insects and animals.

Do you have teddies?

Young fairies do. These are made with the same spider webs that make our clothes.

Are you friends with bugs?

Some of our bestest friends are bugs. We love having piggy back rides with butterflies, moths and dragonflies. They are very nice and very pretty. Spiders are very friendly to us and very helpful too. They love weaving their webs for us to use. Lady birds are always funny and make us laugh.

It's surprising how much sense this all made to an 8 year old girl...