The Fae Folk: Stories featuring Fairies and Faeries

Fairies have been a part of our folklore for years and tales of their wicked and mischievous deeds have made their way into many of today’s fantasy novels. So, if you are interested in stories featuring the courts and world of fairies, or faeries, check out this list below and let us know your favorite faires/faeries stories. For physical copies of these books, please read these instructions for reserving titles for Curbside Pickup. 

*All book descriptions are from the publisher.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him—and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Accessible as an Overdrive ebook/audiobook and physical book.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Rule #3: Don’t stare at invisible faeries.

Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty-especially if they learn of her Sight-and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.

Rule #2: Don’t speak to invisible faeries.

Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.

Rule #1: Don’t ever attract their attention.

But it’s too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost-regardless of her plans or desires.

Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom, her best friend, Seth, her life-everything.

Accessible as a hoopla ebook/audiobook and physical book.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (previously mentioned in YA Beauty and the Beast Retellings and a staff pick on the ACOTAR Series)

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world. At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

Accessible as an Overdrive ebook/audiobook and physical book

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change. But she could never have guessed the truth.

For Meghan is the daughter of a mythical faery king…and a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Accessible as an Overdrive ebook and physical book.

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She’s about to find out she’s also a cloverhand—one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass—a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky—and equally dangerous—dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen’s sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren’t so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn’t exactly what she had in mind…

Accessible as an Overdrive ebook, hoopla ebook, and physical book

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.

Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.

In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.

Accessible as an Overdrive audiobook, hoopla ebook/audiobook, and physical book.

Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken…. Seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow always thought faeries were just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery. He’s a changeling-a mortal taken as an infant and raised among Faerie-and within short order he’s turned Kelley’s heart inside out and her life upside down. For Kelley’s beloved Central Park isn’t just a park-it’s a gateway between her ordinary city and the Faerie’s dangerous, bewitching Otherworld. Now Kelley’s eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her, but to the heritage that awaits her… a destiny both wondrous and strange.

Accessible as a hoopla ebook/audiobook and physical book.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius, and above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn’t know what he’s taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These aren’t the fairies of bedtime stories—they’re dangerous!

Accessible as an Overdrive ebook/audiobook, hoopla ebook, and physical book

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Kids Takeover hoopla!

The Abbot Public Library’s most recent addition to online services, hoopla, continues to expand its offerings by creating collections tailored to specific audiences. Recently, the hard working content experts at hoopla have curated collections for kids, called the Kids’ Takeover. These collections of children’s audiobooks, comics, ebooks, music, and videos feature new releases and popular titles.

AUDIOBOOKS

Disappear to bear country in the childhood classic stories, The Berenstain Bears: Brother and Sister Bear Favorites by Jan and Mike Berenstain, or visit another popular bear from the Hundred Acre Wood in A. A. Milne’s Winnie-The-Pooh. You might recognize the characters from Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen’s The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor from the TV show of the same name which came out in the mid ‘90s. Part 5 of the Magic Schoolbus Audiobook series, dive down in a schoolbus-turned-submarine and explore the mysteries of the deep blue with Ms. Frizzle and her class. For something a bit more magical, listen to the second of C. S. Lewis’s popular Chronicles of Narnia series, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Check out more audiobooks in the Kids’ Takeover Audiobook Collection.

COMICS

If you’d rather read your books than listen to them, the Kids’ Takeover Comics may be more to your taste. Snoopy, Spiderman, and Percy Jackson are just a few of the characters you’ll meet. Everybody’s favorite lazy lasagna-loving feline makes a comic appearance in Garfield: The Monday That Wouldn’t End, which we can all relate to;  Garfield: Snack Pack Vol. 3, with food, friends, and a Sam Spayed mystery; and Garfield: Garzilla, in which animals are supersized and Garfield’s human friend, Jon, might become a werewolf!

For some Avatar-style pop culture, check out Avatar: The Last Airbender: North And South Part 1, the first part of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series which continues the saga featuring Avatar Aang, as well as a title from the series featuring his successor, The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire Part 2.

EBOOKS

Try some oldies but goodies. Read about amphibian friends in Arnold Nobel’s Frog and Toad Together, a story originally published in 1972 in which Frog and Toad grow gardens and eat cookies together. Penguins take over in Richard and Florence Atwater’s 1938 classic, Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Mr. Popper, a painter living in Stillwater, is given a penguin called Captain Cook. Soon after, he finds more and more penguins keep stopping by. This ebook includes an illustrated biography of the authors.

In the Kids’ Takeover Ebooks Collection, you’ll find even more classics such as Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, the Disney Read-Along ebooks Aladdin and Moana, and other popular stories, such as Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer and Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. 

MUSIC

The Kids’ Takeover Music Collection has some select albums, including Disney Princess: Fairy Tale Songs. Children will recognize tracks from The Little Mermaid (“Part of Your World”), Mulan (“Reflection”), Cinderella (“A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”), Beauty and the Beast (“Something There”), and other Disney movies. 

For something more upbeat, Best of Raffi will have you singing (and maybe dancing) along to “Baby Beluga,” “Apples And Bananas,” “Shake My Sillies Out,” “Wheels On The Bus,” and “Mr. Sun.” So, if you’re happy and you know it, sing along with Raffi! 

After all that singing and dancing, when you’re children are ready to get tucked into bed, enjoy some nightitme sounds with Mister Rogers Bedtime, including the songs “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” “When the Day Turns to Night,” “Many Ways To Say I Love You,” and more.  

MOVIES AND TELEVISION

If you’d rather watch the Avatar than listen to audiobooks about him, go back to the beginning and stream Book 1: Water. You can also watch season 1 of Legend of Korra, the next Avatar after Aang. Kids’ Takeover: Movies collection has a lot of other familiar faces, including ElmoMadeline, Franklin, and Arthur. For shows filled with sugar, spice and everything nice, try The Powerpuff Girls: Season 1, The Power Puff Girls (Classic): Season 1, and The Power of Four

It’s the first day of spring in My Little Pony: The Movie, and the Little Ponies are getting ready for a festival until Hydia and her two daughters, a trio of evil witches, try to stop the celebration. 

A mysterious power is at work in Pokémon: The First Movie which threatens human and pokémon alike. Do you know Dragons Love Tacos or Where the Wild Things Are? If not, hop over to hoopla and stream these videos now!

Fictional Kid Mastermind Series

Can a twelve-year-old save the world? Maybe not, but it is a lot of fun for kids to imagine. Here are three action fantasies that feature genius kids with hyper skills and inexhaustible resources who can defeat dangerous forces.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, a fantasy/adventure for ages 10+ (also in audiobook and graphic novel format)

Artemis Fowl, criminal mastermind, techie millionaire, 12-year-old genius, decides to steal the gold of a secret, a dangerous race of fairies. Lots of trouble ensues. Essentially parentless Artemis teams up with a pixie and a dwarf, and his adult protector named Butler. There are nearly non-stop battles and peril for Artemis and his sidekicks, with the use of clever machinery on both sides. 

Disney has come out with a PG movie based on the book series.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, a fantasy/adventure for ages 9+ (also in audiobook format)

This adventure series features four precocious gifted kids who are recruited and trained by a mysterious millionaire (Mr. Benedict) for a secret mission. They are sent to infiltrate a secret boarding school run by an evil genius who wants to take over the world. Their special skills and their teamwork will be tested in various ways throughout the series. Ethical behavior and pooling talents are portrayed as important as cleverness in this series.

A TV series has been developed based on the books, available on Hulu.

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs, a spy thriller/adventure for ages 10+ 

Twelve-year-old math prodigy, thief, code-breaker. and super athlete Charlie Thorne is recruited by CIA agents for a vital mission. She needs to find and solve the final secret equation of Albert Einstein that unlocks the secret of unlimited power that can either save or destroy the world. She must use her ability to see the world in terms of calculations and probabilities to defeat a secret group out to get the equation first.