School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-6-After her parents' divorce, Willa and her mother move into a run-down trailer in the country, near Willa's Uncle Andrew. The 10-year-old keeps her mind off her dad's absence by helping out at her elderly neighbor Hazel's while her mom is at work, but whenever she goes near the woods, she is plagued by sparkly visions of tiny houses and people. These images mesh with tales that Hazel tells her of a community of woodland fairies who live in and around an old tree stump, and after a scary incident involving a neighbor and his dirt bike, Willa meets the Nutfolk. This story is a bit unsatisfying as a fantasy; most of the information about the Nutfolk comes secondhand, from Hazel's stories. Willa has minimal interactions with the fairies, and even those come late in the book. A "mystery" regarding some lost paintings falls rather flat. More satisfying are Willa's friendships with old Hazel and with a local boy named Vincent, and her efforts to deal with her parents' divorce. The pacing is slow and the dialogue can be a bit folksy ("gee" and "heck"), but there are enough satisfying moments to hold readers.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Readers overwhelmed by the world's complexities will find solace in Ullman's endearing first novel featuring woodland creatures quite content to live an unfettered existence. Shortly after moving to the country with her recently divorced mother, Willa, a fourth grader who sorely misses her father and is overcome by worries, begins having fleeting visions of doll-size beings and their miniature abodes. The sightings last only a few seconds, leaving Willa to wonder whether or not what she has seen was real. Eventually, she connects her visions to wondrous tales about the "Nutfolk" told to her by her new neighbor, an ancient woman named Hazel, who lives as simply as the woodland creatures she describes in her stories. According to Hazel, the Nutfolk, a friendly, peaceful community of fairies, have special powers to heal and also to protect their surroundings. Searching for evidence that the Nutfolk exist distracts Willa from her woes and helps solidify new friendships with Hazel and Hazel's young helper, Vincent. Although some aspects of the plot appear forced (as in Willa's discovery of hidden sketches of the Nutfolk), the novel's invitation to "look behind Nature's magic" is inspiring. Readers, no doubt, will suspend their disbelief about the magical fairies much sooner than Willa, and may yearn for more episodes about the Nutfolk. Ages 8-12. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Review
Willa, nine, narrates events of a post-divorce summer in this poorly edited first novel. Mama uses settlement money for acreage in the country, and they renovate an old trailer. When she takes a job at the used bookstore, Mama trades Willa's chore duty for the TLC of elderly neighbor Hazel. As their rustic routines develop, Hazel spins tales of the tiny, vaguely matriarchal Nutfolk. Her details echo Willa's own previous sightings of a tree-stump settlement and shimmering fairy auras. Enlisting the help of a neighbor boy, Willa tries to prove that the Nutfolk exist. Ullman has not yet mastered unreliable narration, yielding at times to authorial insight and too many adverbs. "I suspected that the main thing Vincent Meeker and I had in common was the struggle to get over our sorrows." Insensitivities crop up, too. Hazel describes Nutfolk's fancier clothing as having "a hint of American Indian in the styling," and the fairies possess a "golden brown complexion with tilted, almond eyes." Human problems and solutions overwhelm the tenuous fairy lore, despite some sweet imagery and deft characterization. A more rigorous edit might have turned the occasional glimmers into a steady glow. (Fiction. 8-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-5. Worn thin and ill by stress, 10-year-old Willa is eager to move out of her spiteful grandmother's house after her parents divorce. After she and her mother move into a trailer in the woods, they meet Hazel, a kind, eccentric old woman who lives nearby. During the summer, Hazel watches Willa while her mother works, and Willa assists Hazel with her chores, which helps the child grow stronger. Willa also begins to read between the lines of Hazel's many stories. Soon they share a secret: a band of woodland fairies called the Nutfolk lives in the woods, invisible to all but a few. When humans threaten their unseen neighbors, Willa and Hazel fight back. With so many fantasies set in vaguely medieval realms, it's refreshing to find one with a homey American backdrop. Ullman's first novel affirms homespun, American values as well, such as the benefits of physical work and nature; Hazel's advice on scaring spiders from the privy and the details of doing laundry pioneer-style are as involving as the particulars of the Nutfolk's cabins, clothes, and magic. A convincing first-person narrative with the wholesome appeal of fresh-baked bread. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2006 Booklist
