★2024 Newbery Honor Winner★

A summer full of green adventures,
The boundaries between everyday life and fantasy are blurred
A new world opens up!

The Fairy Dog, the Owl Head, and Me won the National Book Award and the Michael L.
Author M., winner of the 'Printz Honorary Award'
This is a work by T. Anderson.
MT
Anderson's unique imagination has earned her the distinction of winning the 2024 Newbery Honor for her captivating depictions of magical adventures and wondrous secrets hidden in the ordinary.
《The Fairy Dog, the Owl Head, and Me》 is a story about an ordinary boy named Clay who meets the fairy dog ​​Elphinor and experiences a surreal adventure while growing up. The delicate sentences that depict the true friendship and dazzling solidarity between the boy, the dog, and the owl head child, combined with the illustrations of Jun-i Woo, who deeply impressed readers with 《Scary Stories for Little Foxes》, winner of the 2020 Newbery Honor, capture the readers' eyes.

The story is set in the summer when everything has come to a halt due to a global pandemic.
The images of mothers losing their jobs due to store closures, children playing alone because they can't see their friends, and school classes being conducted online are clearly reminiscent of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world a few years ago.
The protagonist, Clay, represents children who have been deprived of what they deserve, and vividly portrays the reality and feelings of children, who, despite following quarantine guidelines better than anyone else in society, are the ones who have been erased the most.
The only difference between Clay and real children is that he can escape the stifling reality and go on adventures with his affectionate white-furred friend Elphinor.

A blue giant, a lake that grants wishes, a village where owl-headed people live… … .
Guided by Elfinor, who can freely move between reality and fantasy, Clay glimpses into the forest's previously unknown secrets and meets Amos, a new friend with an owl head (literally a "bird" head!), with whom he shares a secret friendship.
Every day, Elphinor and Amos guide Clay deeper into the forest, into an unknown world he never knew existed.
But as with all adventures, the thrill of excitement is followed by a chilling fear.
Clay, who hides his identity and sneaks into a party of magical beings, is in danger of losing Elphinor forever.
Elfinor was dragged into the 'Kingdom Below the Mountain' where he first came.
Clay and Amos, who are completely different in appearance, personality, and speech, risk their lives and head to the kingdom beneath the mountain to save their beloved friend Elfinor.
Finally, after a long adventure, Clay realizes one thing.
Adventures that seem like they will last forever will eventually end and become memories, but true friendship and solidarity are never forgotten.

It unfolds in the most ordinary place
The most wonderful magic
The birth of a new Chronicles of Narnia in this era!

The New York Times Book Review points out that one of the compelling aspects of The Fairy Dog, the Owl Head and Me is that it “tells us that there is magic in the everyday itself.”
In children's literature, the fantasy world is often depicted as a kind of paradise, completely separate from everyday life.
This is because it should be portrayed as a place where children, tired of daily life and reality, can catch their breath and return with joy and hope.
The fantasy world depicted in children's books is meaningful as a space where children gain the strength to continue living when they return to their daily lives.

Such attempts have continued steadily and can be easily found in fairy tales that are considered classics.
Like Tom in "Midnight in Tom's Garden" who discovers the 13:00 garden while spending the school holidays semi-confined at his aunt and uncle's house because of measles, or Bastian, an introverted child in "The Neverending Story" who is sucked into a fantasy world within a book while reading while locked in a school storeroom, or the Chronicles of Narnia where siblings who fled to the countryside to escape the war enter a completely new world called "Narnia" through a wardrobe.
However, in "The Fairy Dog, the Owl Head and Me," instead of the subject of the child entering a fantasy world separate from reality, fantasy and magic coexist with reality.
It is saying that the magic that will liberate children from the stifling reality and allow them to dream and live again is not that far away.


The 'Kingdom Under the Mountain' actually exists beneath Mount Norumbega, where Clay often plays, and the village where the owl-headed people live has been there for a very long time, though it is invisible to the eyes of ordinary humans.
After Elphinor loses his magical powers to travel between dimensions, and both Clay and Elphinor are unable to see the fantasy world, 'magic' still exists in Clay's reality.
Clay and Elphinor were never able to venture into the fantasy world again.
But as these two sit on the mountaintop, waiting for something new to happen, we see that those who share true friendship experience a happiness more magical than magic.
Just as Clay developed a true friendship with Elfinor and Amos through his adventures, I hope that readers of this book will also discover someone with whom they can truly share their hearts.