Kingfisher Days: Based on Her Childhood Correspondence with R.C. Moir

By Susan Coyne

Book Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

A magical tale of friendship and wonder--the perfect gift for the imaginative child in all of us.

One summer, in a hedge near her family's cottage in Kenora, five-year-old Susan Coyne discovered an overgrown stone fireplace. Her father said it was the home of Uncle Joe Spondoolak, an elf who'd moved in after the cottage had burned down long ago. Susan, a fanciful child, decided to become keeper of the hearth, tidying it up and leaving little gifts for the elves: handfuls of wild strawberries, daisy chains, a tiny birchbark canoe. Overnight the gifts would disappear. One morning, there was a tiny piece of carefully folded pink paper wedged in between the mossy stones.

To Helen Susan Cameron Coyne: Greetings
Her Majesty, Queen Mab, has instructed me to thank you for making a home for all her people.

Thus began Susan's correspondence with a precocious young fairy princess, Nootsie Tah, and her indoctrination into the world of the great and little people.

Susan took the letter next door to Mr. Moir, because he knew all sorts of interesting things. Sure enough, he had an entire library filled with books about characters such as Puck, Ariel and Oberon. The letters from Nootsie Tah continued, and that summer Susan developed two unique relationships: one with a proud princess from a mystical land, and the other with a gentle gardener with infinite wisdom and patience. These would sustain her throughout her life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679312412
• ISBN13: 9780679312413
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Vintage Books Canada
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Simply......WOW!

This is not a book I would have chosen for myself. However, I just finished reading it for my bookclub and I must admit.....I couldn't put it down. I had borrowed it from my local library and I have just purchased it.....if you need to remember innocence and what it was like to be a child and carefree.....this is a must read.An absolutely refreshing and captivating read that mere words cannot describe.

This book defines what I like most about Canada

I can but echo the words of the gentleman who wrote the first review for this book. As a 41 year old business owner living and working in downtown Toronto, I rarely get moved by fairy tales. Kingfisher Days, is much more than that.I too listened with great interest to the CBC's captivating production where the author warmly and intelligently read this wonderful book. I have attended a number of Soulpepper productions (the theatre company that she and her husband started), it is a soul expanding experience to see one of their plays.The best part of being Canadian? Small things. Like the CBC's 'sometimes' greatness in bringing books like this to an audience starved for art that touches your soul. Like the Soulpepper theatre company, who does the same much more consistently. And like Susan Coyne, who if she had been raised somewhere else in the world, may never have written this wonderful book.When I was young and we were new in this country, I sometimes wished that my parents and I would have emigrated to New York or Paris or some other 'exciting' place instead of Toronto. Reading Kingfisher Days, I am glad they did not.

Totally Captivating!

I haven't read the book yet, but I've been listening to it being read by Susan Coyne herself on the CBC. Normally I have no time for fairy stories, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings etc., which I suppose makes me a grumpy old man, but I was totally entranced by the CBC production. Don't you love people who review a book without reading it! I would normally never do that but I couldn't resist. The reading on the air was more than wonderful, enough so that even though I am a rock hard cynic and a scientist I was totally captivated.