WeeFreeMen

=//The Wee Free Men// by Terry Pratchett=

Summary
Tiffany Aching is a nine-year-old with a lot of spunk. I mean, how many girls, upon encountering a slimy and clearly dangerous creature in their creek, would respond by using their little brother as bait and knocking the creature over the head with a cast iron pan? When this same brother is stolen by the Queen of Fairyland, Tiffany is determined to get him back, despite that fact that he is a horrible, sticky child whose only interest is sweets. Luckily for Tiffany, a group of small blue men witness Tiffany's attack on the creature in the creek, and they offer to help her seek her brother. These pictsies have questionable habits of thieving and drinking, but their strength is equalled only by their courage and loyalty. Plus, they have invaluable experience with the monsters and misleading dream worlds Tiffany will encounter in Fairyland.

Recommended for sixth graders
Especially anyone looking for action, adventure, fantasy, humor, and a strong female character. Challenging because of length (375 pages) and the dialect of the pictsies. For example: "Crivens! Gang awa' oot o' here, ye daft wee hinny! 'Ware the green //heid//!" (p. 5) and "Who's the wee bigjob who knows sich a lot aboot aviation?" (p. 127) But the humor and adventure is well worth working a bit to understand the talk of the pictsies. The public library has an audiobook copy on CD which is fun to listen to because of the dialect.