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| Children showing off their fairy house. Visitors can make their own, and check out more than 400 houses at the Fairy House Tour, in Portsmouth next weekend. (courtesy photo) |
Tracy Kane, author & illustrator, talks about her work
By Timothy Gillis
Staff Columnist
PORTSMOUTH -
Just in time for the 8th annual Portsmouth Fairy
House Tour, author and illustrator Tracy Kane has released a trilogy of her
popular books. As kids of all ages get ready for the tour, they can peruse more
than 140 pages of pictures of fairy houses from the illustrated books “Fairy
Houses,” “Fairy Boat” and “Fairy Flight” now available in one volume.
The author will be at the tour in Portsmouth next weekend,
September 15 and 16, signing books and meeting fans. “I’m pretty busy for the
two days, but it’s a lot of fun,” she said.
Though it’s her busiest time of the year, she took time out
this week to discuss the fairy house craze, a New England phenomenon that is
spreading across the country.
“The first books came out in 2000,” Kane said. “I was
inspired by visiting Monegan Island, off the coast of Maine, where they have a
tradition of building fairy houses in the Cathedral Woods. I was inspired by it
to come up with a children’s book.”
Kane was working as an artist for New Hampshire Public
Television at the time, and had no idea the book series, and the tour based on
it, would become so popular.
“This is the eighth year they’ve been doing this. It started
out as a tour of gardens with fairy houses in them, and 1200 people showed up
first year. Now it’s close to 5000, focused mainly in Prescott Park and
Strawbery Banke, which is the hub of it,” Kane said.
A ticket to the Fairy House tour will also gain you
admittance to the historic houses in the area, so the weekend event offers
something for everyone.
“All the money gets divided to help neighborhood
non-profits,” she said. “It’s great family fun. The thing about fairy houses is
that it’s an activity enjoyed outside by families. There’s a real movement in
the country to get kids outside, with computers and video games so popular with
kids.”
Kane just returned from a fairy houses event in Colorado, so
it’s starting to spread across the country, she said, and offer more of a
national appeal. “Portsmouth is more elaborate in that they have children build
houses and then people can take tours,” she said.
Kane does not have children of her own. “By the time I went
to art college, I was ready for a career so I went that direction. It’s kind of
a Peter Pan thing though. I have so much fun meeting children, and I feel like
one myself,” she said.
An earlier book, released this June, is called “Fairy
Houses… Unbelievable!” offers lots of photographs of the various tours.
“It shows how they have developed over the years, you see
everything from rustic to mansion in terms of style,” she said.
The Fairy House Tour
takes place Saturday, September 15, from 9 am to 1 pm and Sunday,
September 16 from 11 am to 3 pm on the grounds of Strawbery Banke, the Governor
John Langdon House, Prescott Park and Peirce Island in Portsmouth. Visitors are
encouraged to make note of the new times this year.
Inspired by Kane’s Fairy Houses series, and produced by
Friends of the South End with the assistance of Canoe Harbor Consulting, the
Fairy House Tour takes place in the South End of Portsmouth. The annual event
attracts an estimated 4,000 families and fairies each year. On display will be
dozens of fairy houses built by artists, florists, garden clubs, businesses,
families, students and others with vivid imaginations and a keen understanding
of what attracts fairies.
Proceeds from ticket sales and sponsorships are donated to
the nonprofit organizations, schools and civic groups that participate in the
tour. Since the Fairy House Tour began, nearly $125,000 has been returned to
the community.
Kane gives fairy house workshops at schools, libraries,
garden and nature centers and other venues related to the “No Child Left
Inside” initiative, an endeavor to get kids back to nature.
“The thrust of the book is to use the allure of building a
fairy house to get kids to spend time in nature. Visitors from nature to a
fairy house are based on the items used in making it,” she said. “At the end of
the tour, families that participate are invited to build a house. There will be
about 400 houses on Peirce Island by the end of the weekend.”
For more information on fairy houses or on The Fairy Houses
Series of books and video, visit www.fairyhouses.com.
