Chapter 1
Ashling wants to be a fairy

Ashling stamped her foot. ‘I want to be a fairy NOW!’ she cried.
‘One day you will be a really truly fairy,’ her fairy mother promised.
Ashling’s bottom lip dropped.
‘It’s not fair,’ she said. ’Everyone’s a fairy but me.’
It was true. Ashling’s mother was a fairy. Her father was a fairy. Aunt Everlasting, Uncle Fern, Grandmother and Grandfather were all fairies.
Ashling brushed away her angry tears.
‘Please Mummy,’ she begged, ‘tell me how do you get to be a fairy?’
"If you want to be a fairy, first you must smile,’ said Mother. ‘Then you must practise walking on tip-toe without falling over.’
’Next ,’ said Father, ‘you must learn how to flit across a lily-pad without getting wet and without bruising the flowers.’
Aunt Everlasting looked up from her knitting.
’After that,’ she said, ‘it’s time to learn to pirouette. First slowly and then very fast without going wobbly.’
’And when you can do all that,’ chuckled Uncle Fern, ‘it's time to leap high and land lightly.’

Chapter 2
A lot of hard work

Ashling practised walking on tip-toe without falling over. Every day she flitted across a lily-pad. Soon she could flit without getting wet and without bruising the flowers. She learned to pirouette. Round and round she turned on the very tips of her toes without going wobbly.
‘There's just one more thing you must do’, her fairy mother told her. ‘You must find your very own fairy wings.’
Ashling looked everywhere for fairy wings. She looked in the garden.
‘Do you know where fairy wings grow?’ Ashling asked two birds. But they only chirped and flew away.
She picked up two dry leaves. They were just the right shape. Ashling put them on. But the dry leaves were too itchy.
Under a Peppermint tree, Ashling found two soft feathers. ‘The birds have left me a present.’
She giggled with delight as she placed the feathers on her shoulders where fairy wings should go. But they tickled so much she had to take them off.
A kind butterfly with beautiful gold-tipped wings fluttered down and sat on Ashling’s hand.
’ Here! Take two of my wings, ’ the butterfly whispered. ‘I have enough for both of us.’
Ashling hurried home to show everyone - Mother, Father, Aunt Everlasting, Uncle Fern; and Grandmother and Grandfather.
Grandmother looked in her box of secrets. She took out a small wand and gave it to Ashling.
‘My dear,’ she said, ‘before you can be a really, truly fairy you must fly up beyond the clouds and catch some star-dust on your wand.’
Grandfather coughed.
’Take care!’ he said. ‘Remember! You must never look at the moon’. He shook his head as he spoke. ‘For if you do, your wings will become stuck together with moon-glue and you will fall "plonk" back down on the ground.’

Chapter 3
A long way to fall

Ashling flew high beyond the trees and clouds. Stars twinkled all around her. Each twinkle sprayed a little stardust onto her wand.
At last, she thought, I can be a really, truly fairy.
As Ashling turned to fly home, the shadow of the moon passed over her head and she remembered her grandfather’s warning: ’Never look at the moon!’
‘‘One eeny weeny tiny look can’t hurt,’ she told herself.
And she closed one eye and, with her other eye only half open, she took an eeny weeny tiny peek at the moon.
Just as Grandfather had warned, she fell plonk back down on the ground, her wings stuck together with moonglue.
Ashling pulled and pulled. But her wings would not come apart. She rolled in prickly grass. She rubbed herself against the bark of a tree. Nothing helped.
Ashling walked home very slowly, her wings drooped behind her.
She sat on Grandfather’s knee. ’I’m sorry, Grandad,’ she whispered. ‘It was only an eeny, weeny tiny look.’

Chapter 4
Grandad makes everything right

‘It only takes an eeny, weeny look for things to go wrong,’ said Grandfather
Ashling stared at the floor. ‘I’ll never be a really truly fairy now, will I?’
Grandfather smiled. ‘When you’re really truly sorry,’ he said, ‘you get another chance. Come with me.’
Ashling and Grandfather walked down the path and across the field. They came to
a secret rock pool hidden deep in the fairy woods.
‘Now,’ said Grandfather, ‘step into the pool and play.’
Ashling swam and splashed in the cool water. She tried her wings. They were still stuck fast.
The moon rose up over the top of the trees. Ashling remembered not to look. She turned her face away, her eyes fixed on a lily pad . . . and that was when the magic happened.
Two moonbeams hit the water, danced across to where Ashling played and softened the moon-glue. Ashling’s wings opened wide. Her wand sparkled like stardust. She stood tall on a lily pad - a really, truly fairy at last.
… … … … … …
If, one evening, you happen upon a gathering of fairies - watch them as the moon rises. Notice the way they spread their wings to shade their eyes and dance together in a circle. Not one fairy will look up at the moon.