We had the first in this series, Meet the Woodland Folk, by Tony Wolf, found at a thrift store a year or so ago. Santa brought the boys the other five books in the series. I guess he must have found them second hand on Amazon or something, or else rescued them on the Island of Misfit Toys. That's all he brought this year. That, and a 1 pound block of Sculpey clay. Here are some of my favorite illustrations scanned. Click for a closer look.
From Meet the Woodland Folk:
From The Woodland Folk Meet the Gnomes:
From The Woodland Folk Meet the Giants:
From The Woodland Folk in Fairyland:
From The Woodland Folk Meet the Elves:
From The Woodland Folk in Dragonland:
I haven't read all the stories in these yet but R has, and E has spent many hours on the couch "reading" through these. The writing isn't always the best, although charming for the most part and filled with rascally characters from mischievous elves, raucous dragons, troublesome fairies, silly gnomes, and all sorts of other critters, even a blue fairy named Iris. The illustrations more than make up for any little shortcomings in the stories. The series at least ends on a good note, the build up to a war between the dragons and all the other folk of the woods evolves into a tug-of-war and even that is put to a stop by a fairy, ending in a great, friendly feast for all. If only such fairy tales could come true.
There. I couldn't keep these to myself any longer, finally gathering all the books into one place again and finding time to scan them. I figured all you gnomey/acorny/woodlandy/elfin/fairy folk out there would enjoy.
