Tink, North of Never Land

(Disney Fairies)

by
Kiki Thorpe

illustrated by

Judith Holmes Clark,

Adrienne Brown & Charles Pickens

Random House, April 2007, 113 pp.
ISBN: 0-7364-2417-2

Genre: Early Chapter
Subgenres: Disney / Fairies
Reviewed: 4/5/2010

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

"Tootles has been kidnapped!" Peter Pan declared.

Tink gasped. She was not overly fond of Tootles. He had always tried to catch her and stuff her into his pockets. But--kidnapped!

Peter turned to the Lost Boys. "Men, we must rescue Tootles. But it may be dangerous." His eyes twinkled. This was just the sort of adventure he adored. "Only the bravest among you may go with me," he told the boys.

The Lost Boys all wanted to be the bravest. They scrambled to line up behind him.

Tink hesitated. Peter looked back at her. "Aren't you coming, Tink?"

He smiled his reckless smile. It suddenly seemed as if no time had passed since her days with Peter Pan. Swept up in the excitement, Tink forgot all about her search for the pixie dust.

"Of course I'm coming!" she cried.

"Then let's go!" said Peter.

They set off marching through the forest. Tink flew in front. They hadn't gone far, though, when she cried out. Peter stopped short. The boys behind him bumped into each other.

Tink flew down and landed next to a paw print in the mud.

"Tracks! Good job, Tink," Peter said. He knelt beside he to look at the track. "It belongs to a tiger. A big one, from the look of it!"

They found another paw print not far off. Tink, Peter, and the boys followed the tracks. They circled right back to the place where Tootles's tracks ended.

"Oh, no." Suddenly, Tink figured out what had happened. She looked at Peter, her eyes wide.

Peter shook his head sadly. "Poor Tootles has been eaten by a tiger."

The Twins' mouths fell open at the same time. Cubby turned as pale as a fish's belly. All the boys stared at Peter.

"Bow your heads, fellas," Peter instructed. "Poor old Tootles."

With loud sniffles, the Lost Boys lowered their heads. Tink landed on Peter's shoulder and solemnly dimmed her glow.

Peter began a little speech. "We'll never forget Tootles. He was a deadeye with a slingshot."

"Aye," said Cubby, "except when he missed."

Peter went on. "Out friend Tootles was a--"

Rrrrow! Suddenly, they heard a loud growl above them.

"The tiger!" Cubby shrieked. He tried to run, but he tripped over the Twins. All three landed in a heap.

Tink flew up into the tree branches. She began to laugh. "That's no tiger," she said. "It's Tootles!"

The growl cam again. Now everyone could tell it wasn't a tiger's roar. It was only Tootles's hungry stomach.

Synopsis

In Pixie Hollow, the secret heart of Never Land, lives Tink, the most talented of the pots-and-pans fairies. Tink and Terence, a fairy-dust-talent sparrow man, and her best friend, are flying when Twire, a scrap-metal-recovery fairy, almost flies into Tink. Twire had been carrying a compass that she had found. They discover that the compass is broken and Tink volunteers to fix it.

When Tink and Terence get the compass back to Tink's workshop, the compass accidentally rolls over a silver bowl that Terence's wings knock off of a shelf. Tink is upset because this was the first thing she had ever fixed and now it was ruined. She turns on Terence and tells him that he is always in her way and that if he really wanted to help her, he should leave her alone. Terence flies off without a word.

As Tink fixes the silver bowl, which isn't hard for her to do, Terence is comforted by Silvermist, a water fairy. She teaches him how to glide over the water while he wears lily pads on his feet. Later that afternoon, having left her shop after fixing the silver bowl, Tink goes out to pick a cherry to eat and sees Terence having fun with Silvermist. She waves at Terence from the shore, but he pretends not to see her because he promised himself he wouldn't bother Tink anymore.

The next morning, Terence is delivering fairy dust to the fairies and runs across Iridessa, a light-talent fairy. She wants to show Terrence something. She steals the light away so they are in darkness, gathers the pollen into a bubble of light, and explode it over their heads so that the pollen lights up like fireworks. Then they try it with fairy dust and the fireworks appear in different colors.

Meanwhile, Tink realizes that there is something missing from her life, and it is Terence. Realizing what she said yesterday might have hurt their friendship, she goes out in search of him. She finds Terence and Iridessa enjoying the fireworks show and having a great time.

That evening, Tink expects to sit with Terence at Story Time. She waits and finally sees him across the way sitting with Rosetta, the prettiest garden fairy in Pixie Hollow. Tink is disappointed and forced to sit next to Fawn, an animal-talent fairy that smells like the skunks she had been playing with earlier in the day.

The next morning, Tink decides that the only way to get Terence back as a friend is get him something he has never had before. After having listened to story the night before about a pixie dust cloud hovering over the Northern Shore, Tink starts off on a journey north to bring Terence back some of the last pixie dust in the world. But on her way north, she runs into problems she didn't foresee. Then when she finds Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, Tink forgets all about her mission retrieve some pixie dust so she can have Terence as her best friend again.

Tink, North of Never Land is another book in the Disney Fairies series. It is written by Kiki Thorpe and illustrated by Judith Holmes Clark, Adrienne Brown & Charles Pickens. This series is intended for young readers aged 7 to 9.

Review

It has been a few years since I have read one of the Disney Fairies early chapter books, which my daughter really enjoys, and I found that I delighted to read Tink, North of Never Land. I thought that it was a nice touch to included Peter Pan and the Lost Boys in this story. After all, we were introduced to Tinker Bell in the first Peter Pan movie by Walt Disney way back in 1953. Thus, kids have loved Tinker Bell now for almost 60 years.

This book is all about how Tink has made a mistake by taking her anger out on her best friend. She then loses him as a friend and she feels that she must do something special to earn back his friendship. Since fairies never apologize, she decides to go on a long journey north and try to find the last of the pixie dust from a tree that died out many years ago. She will give Terence some of this pixie dust as a present with the hope that he will want to be her friend again. All of this could have been avoided if she had only tried to speak with Terence before she left. I'm sure he would have been happy to be her best friend again, because he was missing Tink's friendship also.

Tink, North of Never Land teaches children that if they do lash out when something goes wrong, that they need to go talk with the friend they hurt and work things out. An apology is sometimes all that is needed. If you keep something like this inside and don't talk about it, the situation will only get worse.

I really enjoyed this story by Kiki Thorpe and found the addition of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys to be a treasure. The artwork by Judith Holmes Clark, Adrienne Brown & Charles Pickens is absolutely perfect. The artwork in these early chapter books are something Walt Disney himself would approve of.

Overall, Tink, North of Never Land is another excellent Disney Fairies book filled with misunderstandings and adventure. If your daughter is having a tough time getting into early chapter books, maybe you should try one of these Disney Fairies books. I know that my daughter absolutely loves them.

I rated this book a 9 out of 10.