This is a middle grade, and this is the first book in the Piper Green series. I listen to the audiobook for this book. The narrator was good and the audiobook was short. I think young children will really enjoy this book. I really love the message in this book. I really wish the characters had more development, but overall I enjoyed this book. I was kindly provided an e-audiobook of this book by the publisher (Live Oak Media) or author (Ellen Potter) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review about how I feel about this book, and I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Here we meet the fun, the feisty, the original Piper Green! She is one of a kind and that's just the beginning of what makes this little girl so special. I love how her spunky spirit comes right off the page, first seen when at breakfast with her brother, then again with the not-so-friendly-girl on the boat to school, and further on from there. She's not disrespectful (so if you're a parent or educator reading this, not to worry), she just tells it like it is and sometimes that gets her into trouble, as she so kindly points out to us from the start. Aside from a great fondness for our little lead, the story will touch your heart when you discover just why she insists on wearing those funky monkey earmuffs (not just the uber cool fashion statement that they are) as well as one of the many secrets of the Fairy Tree. The magic aspect reminds me of her other work, The Humming Room. It's low key but runs throughout the story just the same providing another course for readers imaginations to run rampant on.

Piper Green and the Fairy Tree written by Ellen Potter tells the story of a second grader name Piper who lives on a small island off the coast of Maine. She loves her family, misses her older brother, and tells it like it is which makes her a interesting character to get to know. Because she lives on such a small island, she and the other kids on the island take a lobster boat to school instead of a school bus. She’s excited to start second grade, but a new teacher that looks like a princess, but sure doesn’t act like one (at least in Piper’s mind) keeps her in at recess for wearing earmuffs in school, Piper decides not to get on the lobster boat the next day and instead finds magic in her front yard in the form of a fairy tree.

Piper Green is a delightful little girl whose honesty, like that of Junie B. Jones has a way of getting her into trouble without her meaning it. She has strong feelings, even stronger opinions and is a little girl that I think will grab hold in your heart. This story would make a perfect read aloud for older preschool children and kindergarten and is a great early chapter books for first and second ganders ready for a new series.

I really liked the realistic fiction aspects of the story and how Ellen Potter was able to add just a little bit of magic that is believable enough that you might expect to find it in your own backyard. This would make a great story to share as a read aloud for young elementary kids with a program about what they might expect to find (or leave) in a fairy tree… I may be adding this to my programming schedule for the fall!