Mip and Pip, two forest fairies, may be best friends, but they have a competitive relationship. When Mip comes upon Pip reading a book about architecture, they both agree to a tree-house race. They give themselves until sundown to see which of them can build the best tree house ever.
Mip is an energetic sort, hacking and thwacking her way ahead. Pip takes a more conservative tack, drawing blueprints and measuring before he even starts. We see him perched on a rock, deep in reflection, his plans spread out all around him. Mip tells him he'll never win this way, and she returns to making her tree house as towering as possible.
When a storm comes up, Pip tries to warn Mip that she should tie down her tower. But Mip suspects him of trying to slow her down, and she proceeds at her own peril. When her tower crashes, it pins Pip's wing, and Mip has a wake-up call about what her real priorities need to be.
Elly MacKay both wrote and illustrated this charming book about what really matters. To create the tree houses in this book, she used foam core and covered the outside with foil and thin wood strips. She laid out her sketches and models like theater sets, then photographed them, making adjustments in placement and lighting along the way. The captivating results are half the joy of this story well told, and we're sure that young readers will turn to this book again and again.
