Beck Beyond the Sea

(Disney Fairies)

by
Kimberly Morris

illustrated by

Denise Shimabukuro

&

Disney Storybook Artists

Random House, August 2007, 113 pp.
ISBN: 978-0-7364-2456-1

Genre: Early Chapter
Subgenres: Disney / Fairies
Reviewed: 5/7/2010

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Beck looked down.

She was crossing an ocean. It's wasn't the Striped Sea, with its friendly-looking, colorful waves. It was the dark, dangerous ocean that divided Never Land from the rest of the world.

The sight made her dizzy. She realized that her dust was wearing out. She reached into the sack for another handful of dust, and her fingertips felt something odd. Down at the bottom of the sack, something was mixed with the dust.

Gravel!

Beck gasped. No wonder that sack was so heavy. It wasn't full of dust. It had been weighed with tiny pieces of rock to make it seem fuller than it was.

Vidia had said, There's enough dust here to take you to the other side of the world and back!

Enough to take her to the other side of the world? Yes. But not nearly enough to get back.

Beck's shock gave way to despair. Vidia had tricked her even more cleverly than Beck had realized. She didn't want Beck gone for a while. She wanted her gone for good.

Well, it wasn't going to work. Beck reached into the sack to find out exactly how much dust was left. If there was just enough to get her to the end of the ocean, she would run--not walk--every step of the way back. But Beck's hands were trembling. And when she tried to reach into the sack, she dropped it!

"No!" she yelled.

The sack fell down, down, down into the dark water.

Beck's heart lurched with fear. How would she get back now? Her head spun. Her shoulders ached, and her arms were limp with fatigue. She had been flying for hours, and still the ocean stretched out beneath her. I can't keep going, she thought. I can't.

She barely managed to stay above the waves. She was so close to the water, she could feel the ocean spray on her wings. They were soaking up moisture and growing heavy. It was becoming impossible to fly.

Lower and lower she dropped. Just as the weight of her wings was about to drag her under the water, she heard something shriek. A seagull! He was boring down on her with his beak open.

"I'm not a fish!" Beck shouted. She tried to be heard over the crashing waves. "I'm not a--yeooowww!"

Synopsis

In Pixie Hollow, the secret heart of Never Land, Beck, an animal-talent fairy, runs across a boar. The boar tells her that he is heading to the western side of the Never Land forest to eat truffles that taste like clouds dipped in joy. He also tells Beck that when the rain falls there, it sounds like music. He invites her to come along with him. Beck wants to go, but knows that she only has a single days supply of fairy dust, which is the magical dust that gives her the ability to fly.

Soon, Beck flies up to the highest branch in the tallest tree in Pixie Hollow. This is a spot she often visits to look out upon the world and think. She finds Terrence, a dust-talent sparrow man, hanging out enjoying the view. He tells Beck the story of Spinner, a tall-tale-telling-talent sparrow man, who left Pixie Hollow to see the world. When he returned, Spinners claimed to have seen many marvelous things like a sea with waves striped different colors and a desert with sand that talked. Beck wishes that she could see these things also.

When a flock of Explorer Birds lands in Pixie Hollow, Beck tries to fly away with them to see what else is out there, but she cannot fly fast enough. After a couple of failed attempts at building items that would help her on her adventure, she runs across Vidia, a fast-flying fairy that doesn't live with the other fairies because of her sour disposition. She gives Beck a sack full of enhanced fairy dust so Beck can go on her adventure. Beck thinks that Vidia is being nice and helpful, but Vidia has plans of her own that require Beck to be far, far away from Pixie Hollow.

Beck Beyond the Sea is another book in the Disney Fairies series. It is written by Kimberly Morris and illustrated by Denise Shimabukuro & Disney Storybook Artists. This series is intended for young readers aged 7 to 9.

Review

All of the Disney Fairies book are full of fun and adventure. Early Chapter readers will love the colorful pictures that are wonderfully drawn and enhance the reading. As for Beck Beyond the Sea, it is another terrific addition to this exciting series that very young readers will highly enjoy.

Beck Beyond the Sea is the second Disney Fairies book to focus on Beck, an animal-talent fairy that can talk to animals. She longs for adventure, to see the world, and to know what is beyond the borders of Pixie Hollow. To do this, she is given a bag of fairy dust by Vidia, a highly untrustworthy fairy. Beck soon learns that she should not have trusted Vidia, but by then, it is too late and she is trapped far away from her home and Mother Dove.

I found it nice that Tink made an appearance in this book to help Beck with the building of her Wing Extenders. Too bad they didn't work very well.

Beck Beyond the Sea teaches children that even though you have goals to want to achieve, trusting the wrong type of person to achieve those goals may lead to problems. Children must learn who they can and cannot trust to help them. It is the greedy, manipulative people that they have to watch out for, because they will use the child to get what they want and they don't care if they hurt the child's feeling. It is a hard lesson to learn and it is a shame that there are people out there that take advantage of other for their own enrichment.

Kimberly Morris has written an entertaining story that will keep an Early Chapter reader engrossed in the story. Young girls will really love this tale of adventure. The artwork by Denise Shimabukuro & Disney Storybook Artists is first-rate and really enhanced the story.

Overall, Beck Beyond the Sea is another excellent Disney Fairies book. So, if you are looking for a book or a series for an Early Chapter reader that is struggling with reading, you cannot go wrong with a Disney Fairies book. These books will be read again and again.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10.