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Bloom

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Bloom
By Doreen Cronin
Illustrated by David Small
Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 2016.  Unpaged.  Picture Book

Once there was a powerful fairy named Bloom who created a kingdom made of glass.  The king and his people loved their shiny kingdom, but they did not love Bloom's heavy feet and the trails of mud she left behind.  The lonely Bloom eventually leaves the kingdom to live in the forest.  Years later, when the glass kingdom is falling apart, the search for Bloom and her fairy magic begin.  But it will take a special (ordinary) girl named Genevieve to discover the secret to saving the kingdom.

In Bloom, Doreen Cronin (of Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type fame) has written a delightful modern fairy tale with a classic fairy tale feel.  David Small's beautiful ink and watercolor illustrations add the perfect amount of whimsy to the story.  In the end, the takeaway lesson comes through loud and clear:  sometimes all it takes to solve the biggest of challenges is a little dirt, some hard work, and the spark of extraordinary within us all.
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