Sophie’s mom arrived and flew over to give her a big, soft hug with her bushy tail. The she joined Sophie’s dad and Sammy, right at the front. They were all waving excitedly. Sophie thought she might burst with pride!
When all the animals had gathered on the banks of the spring, the band played a fanfare with their lily trumpets. Sophie, Bonnie, Polly, and Katie carefully took hold of the branches they’d practiced with the day before.
Just as they were about to begin, Sophie looked up and saw the bluebird on his branch. But he wasn’t blue anymore. Just like the tree, his feathers were now every color of the rainbow!
Oops, thought Sophie. But the bluebird didn’t seem to mind at all. He puffed up his colorful chest proudly and began trilling his beautiful song, in harmony with the band.
Sophie took a deep breath. Tail, behave! she said in her head. She hoped the shooting-star dust would work.
Sophie’s heart soared as she skipped around the tree, first this way, then that. Her tail didn’t shake, so nobody sneezed. And it stayed in position, so it didn’t get tangled up in the branches or trip her up. She was surrounded by a blur of lovely colors as the branches of the willow tree swished to and fro. It reminded her of the beautiful shooting star and how it had drawn patterns so gracefully across the sky.
The crowd clapped and cheered as the four friends danced faster and faster around the tree. Sophie caught a glimpse of her mom and dad smiling, and her little brother laughing and clapping his paws in time.
And then, suddenly, it was over. All of Misty Wood cheered and clapped and drummed the ground with their paws. Sophie thought they might never stop!
At last the clapping began to die down, and the fairy animals set off to explore all the exciting things on offer at the fair. Sophie rushed over to her mom and dad to give them both a huge hug.
“We did it!” she squealed.
“You were fantastic!” Her dad grinned. “My little star!”
Sophie laughed. “Oh, but it was the shooting star that helped me!” she exclaimed, and gave her tail a little shake. She gasped. There was no rainbow-colored stardust left. Instead, a cloud of the usual silvery stardust shimmered in the air, then floated gently to the ground.
“It’s all gone!” Sophie stared at her dad. “I haven’t shaken my tail since decorating the tree. I must have used it all up before the dance!” Sophie frowned. “But how did I manage to get my tail to behave if I didn’t have any magical stardust left?”
Her dad patted her head with his paw. “Sometimes, all you need is to believe,” he said with a smile. “You believed the stardust was going to help you—and it did. It gave you the confidence you needed to do the dance perfectly. Now you can believe in yourself!”
“Wow—that really is magic!” Sophie gasped.
“Yes, it is,” said her dad. “Now it’s time you and your friends went off to enjoy the fair. You deserve it after all that hard work.”
Sophie had been thinking so much about the dance, she’d almost forgotten that a whole day of wonderful treats and surprises lay ahead.
As she fluttered off to join Katie, Bonnie, and Polly, she saw someone else flying along beside her.
“Can I come, too?” chirped the bluebird. “I want to show off my new colorful feathers.”
“Of course you can!” Sophie exclaimed.
How many Fairy Animals books have you collected?
Chloe the Kitten
Bella the Bunny
Paddy the Puppy
Mia the Mouse
Poppy the Pony
Hailey the Hedgehog
Sophie the Squirrel
Daisy the Deer
And there are more magical adventures coming very soon!
About the Author
Lily Small is the author of the Fairy Animals of Misty Wood series. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Map
Dedication
Chapter One
Rise and Shine!
Chapter Two
Practice Makes Perfect
Chapter Three
Hello, Mr. Bluebird!
Chapter Four
Triple Trouble
Chapter Five
Shooting Star!
Chapter Six
The Big Day
Chapter Seven
Rainbow Bright!
About the Author
Copyright
Text copyright © 2014 by Houthouse Fiction Ltd. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Kirsteen Harris Jones.
Henry Holt and Company
Publishers since 1866
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
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First American edition 2017
eBook edition February 2017
eISBN 9781250122599