Book Two: Finding Fairyland 2

Book Two: Finding Fairyland 2

An excerpt from Finding Fairyland 2, by Barry Poupard:

Laura poked at a clump of leaves with the stick she held in her mittened hand. When she found nothing, she grunted “Figures” and continued on. She looked down as she walked, ignoring the leafless trees, the chattering birds, and all the other sights along the path.
When she had first come outside into the December afternoon, Laura had taken off the knit hat her mother made her wear and stuffed it into her coat pocket. Her brown hair, thick and curly, was pulled back in a ponytail, though a few strands had come loose during her walk. It was late in the afternoon and she’d been searching around in the woods for more than an hour. She was cold without the hat but she didn’t want to always do what her mother said. She had her jacket zipped up as high as it would go to keep out the chill.
The fourteen-year-old walked along the trail and prodded leaves on the ground and at small shrubs. Now and then she kicked a fallen branch or rock with the toe of her boot and turned it over. Every time she saw a bush, though most of them were bare of leaves, she probed under the branches and looked beneath them, searching.
“How long are you going to keep this up?” the girl walking just behind her asked. She too was bundled against the cold, a knit hat on her head and her hands stuck in her pockets.
“Until I find something,” Laura answered, not looking back at her friend.
“What do you think you’ll find out here?” the other girl asked. “You’ve looked along these trails over and over again. We’ve wandered all through your family’s woods every time I’ve been over for the past three months. You even made me sit on that hill for hours. But you never gave me a good reason. It’s a weird way to get away from your family. What are you looking for?”
“A way to fairyland,” answered Laura who was now examining a hole in the trunk of a large tree.
“You’re kidding,” the other girl said and stopped. “I thought you were joking when you said that. Are you as goofy as your sister?”
“Look, Hannah,” Laura said spinning around and facing her friend. “If Julia went to fairyland, I should be able to go too. Do you want to help me or not? If you do, you’ll be able to go with me.”
“You believe in fairies?” Hannah asked, lifting her chin above the collar of her coat. She pulled her left hand out of her pocket and rubbed at her red-rimmed nose. “That there are little people who run around in the woods?” Hannah smiled. “Dancing and singing and flying on little wings?”
Laura nodded her head at her friend, angry at first, but then she grinned. “Yes, I do believe. Maybe not as much as Julia did before she went. But I know they exist. And that fairyland is real, too.”

Click here to download the first chapter of Finding Fairyland 2: Laura’s Turn