The Gold Dust Letters
Investigators of the Unknown, Book 1
“Dear Angela: I, Pilaria, known also as the Gray-Eyed Faerie, send friendship in this time of trouble. Your letters made me happy and I will try to answer your questions. You asked where I live. My world is invisible to you and would seem strange if you could see it. Here there are no colors, only dark grays and browns. The people go about with stiff faces and few can say what is really on their minds. We faeries have fallen on hard times in recent years...” |
Angela Harrall is carrying on a most extraordinary correspondence. Letters from Pilaria of the Kingdom of the Faeries, Eighth Tribe, Fourth Earth, Under the Sun-Star Aravan, have begun appearing on her living room mantelpiece. They're beautifully written on scrolled paper that comes tied with a thin gold thread around the middle. Angela's friend Georgina is suspicious but Angela knows the letters are real because they're so sad. There is also the strange matter of the gold dust that flies out whenever the letters are opened, and then mysteriously vanishes.
Georgina will not be satisfied, though. She must see the fairy being with her own eyes before she'll believe. At first, Angela won't allow it. She knows that real magic is a fragile thing. One rude gust of outside air and it can fly to pieces. Then she relents, and plans are put in motion for a meeting with the shy, lonely, other-world creature who turns out to be realer than anyone expects.
Awards and Honors
Junior Literary Guild Selection
Bank Street Notable Book, 1994 |
