Little Raisin Cake
A naive fairy, a school for wizards and a wicked witch enliven this tale of a young fairy from a far-off village who is sent to school and becomes a wiser person. Little Raisin Cake is sent from her grassy childhood haven to get the education beginner fairies must have. Once at school, the love, security and absolute acceptance she had known are replaced by the cruelty inflicted on the young fairies’ chosen victim. What good are four sweet dimples to a slow, gullible, overweight fairy who only wants to be like everyone else?
School is traumatic and humiliating, and to add to her troubles Little Raisin Cake exudes a heavenly smell of apples that troubles more than one young wizard. The young fairy learns about tension, jealousy and disillusionment, but she has not a gram of evil in her, and that quality is honored in the end. Yona Tepper’s fable of adolescence is written with warmth and humor.