Hairy, Scary, but Mostly Merry Fairies!: Curing Nature Deficiency through Folklore, Imagination, and Creative Activities

Author Renee Simmons Raney believes that every child deserves his or her own personal landscape in which to seek adventure and unleash creativity. Through this charming storybook, Renee weaves fairy stories, enhancing the natural world with supernatural creatures, and connecting children to diverse habitats, creatures, seasons, and holidays while inspiring a sense of place, a land conservation ethic, and a comfortable fearlessness for outdoor exploration. Hairy, Scary, but Mostly Merry Fairies! also includes activities that encourage families and school classes to explore their natural surroundings and to engage in imaginative play. It offers a multi-generational remedy for curing nature deficiency.

About the Author :
RENEE SIMMONS RANEY is the Director of Conservation and Environmental Education for one of the south’s largest land trust organizations. She has presented award-winning environmental education programs, storytelling, and fairy workshops for over a million participants in twelve states and three countries. Kathryn Tucker Windham blessed Raney’s first book, Calico Ghosts, giving her an old black click pen and saying, "Take my pen and continue to inspire imagination across the South."

Review :
A great way of encouraging kids to get out and really look at their natural world. Renee Raney is a trained biologist and provides many fun and imaginative activities for teachers, kids, and parents to explore, write, draw, and build in their backyards, woods, or parks. The world needs more fairy houses, and more books like this one. Hairy, Scary, but Mostly Merry Fairies! will enchant young readers and is sure to inspire creativity in nature. Renee Raney’s writing is captivating because it mixes the real world and the world of magic so seamlessly, in the way many of us have forgotten our minds used to do. I began seeing the glint of fairy dust in the woods outside my living room window while reading the first few pages of Hairy, Scary, but Mostly Merry Fairies, and the spell was never broken. This book for young readers will have thousands of adult fans, and with very good reason. It’s a masterpiece. Renee Raney takes you on an enchanting journey into the realm of imagination. Her fairies lead children away from the sterile electronic world that has robbed so many children of the creative joy of childhood. Children have not changed, if you introduce the world of fairies and dreams to them, they love it just as much as the generations who came before. This book gives us the tools we need to travel back into time when magic could teach us so much about reality. Renee Raney is an award-winning environmental educator with a vast background in sharing her enthusiasm for nature, especially with respect to living in awareness of its importance. Children (and adults) today are overly engaged in the digital world, and they are often deprived of knowing nature’s delights. Raney’s book is a godsend to children, parents, and educators. It is full not only of her personal stories of loving fairies and studying all about them, but also of nature-related activities and resources. She takes a reader’s mind to new possibilities in understanding the visible and invisible worlds, and bridges reality and enchantment in ways that refresh and relax and stimulate wonder in the mind. An enchanting book! Hairy, Scary, but Mostly Merry Fairies helped me rediscover my belief in the fairy kingdom. Renee Raney’s creative writing style will delight both children and adults. There is much in the book for nature lovers and to stimulate the imagination. Every public library—every person!—should have a copy. Sometimes we all need a little encouragement to go and stay outside. Some of us respond to play, some us respond to art, and some of us respond to a little bit of both. Hairy, Scary but Mostly Merry Fairies leads the way with curriculum support, activities suggestions, and fairy house-building projects. This small book will travel well to any fairy destination!