FernFolio

The Once Upon a TIMES reports that Princess Vera is deathly ill, and that her father, the King, is frantic.  Fortunately, Libby Gaberchik, fairy and healer, knows just what is wrong with the dear girl.  Love.  The princess is starved for it.
So Libby tells the king that Vera must eat three perfect peaches and marry within a week of eating them.  Soon young men from all over have flocked to the castle, each bearing three peaches, but none of them are perfect peaches.
In a small cottage lives a poor widow with her three sons, Sheldon, Harvey and Marvin.  Sheldon, the eldest, picks the three best peaches in their orchard and tries his luck with Princess Vera, but reckons without Libby Gaberchik, whom he meets in the forest that surrounds the castle.  Sheldon’s rudeness proves to be his downfall, and he returns home in shame.  Harvey fairs no better, so, finally, the youngest, Marvin, takes his chance.
Unlike his older brothers, Marvin is skinny and kind to a fault.  When he meets Libby Gaberchik in the forest, he passes her test with flying colours and earns her quiet help in his quest to win Princess Vera’s hand in marriage, and bring his poor old mother to live with them in the castle.
Marvin is going to need all the help that Libby can give him, for the King fancies someone more polished and important than Marvin for his only child, and is prepared to do anything he can to prevent a marriage between them!
Told from Libby’s perspective, this fairy tale of Princess Vera and her kindly but rather hapless suitor, Marvin, is warmly engaging and fun.  A terrific story about two young people, and the charmingly plain-speaking and unassuming fairy who steps in to help them.  Lovely illustrations by John Manders!
FernFolio Editor