Fairy Friendly Family Corner
Book review: Faerie Blood written and illustrated by Jeremy Berg
Lorian Press, 2013
“Trust your feelings and follow the facts.” The best advise we could possibly give to our tweens and teens… and to ourselves. In the course of one night, this fictional story of grandfather and grandson explores the complex subjects of death and our relationship with the Sidhe. Many of you may remember
Jeremy from past Fairy Congresses. He is the owner of Lorian Press and Starseed Publications and the author of The Gathering Light and the artist for the Card Deck of the Sidhe. The voice in the book takes a very personal tone of an elder remembering his experience as a youth spending very precious moments alone with his dying grandfather. The book eloquently describes the last moments in the grandfather’s life in a biologically accurate way that is gentle and soothing. Death is not to be feared in this book. The book also opens the possibility to the reader that it is possible for a family to have Sidhe blood.
What I like about this narrow volume which can be read in one setting, is that Jeremy acknowledges the awkward strangeness that accompanies a person when first introduced to concepts of Fey. Using a naturally meandering conversation initiated by grandpa, he weaves many complex topics explored in depth by David Spangler in such books as “Conversations With The Sidhe” and “Subtle Worlds, An
Explorer’s Field Notes” with great clarity and agility. Understood facts about evolution are intertwined with the ethereal, staying consistent with Spangler’s understandings and groundings in biology.
Jeremy takes the reader through the experience of the youth having his first guided meditation to an altered state, experiencing the inner vision of ancestors and Sidhe in a stone circle. I like this book because it doesn’t preach nor take a condescending tone. There is enough information for a tween or teen to gain an expanded vision of the potential doorways between the worlds without it being some extraordinary science fiction/fantasy encounter. For the older reader, there is a simple comfort in reading this book. If you are lucky enough to still have an opening with your tween or teen to read aloud together, this would be a sweet book to share as an opening to more conversation.
