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Cast of Wonders => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Languorous Lass on July 05, 2022, 04:22:39 AM

Title: CoW Ep. 498: Field Biology of the Wee Fairies
Post by: Languorous Lass on July 05, 2022, 04:22:39 AM
Cast of Wonders 498: Field Biology of the Wee Fairies (https://www.castofwonders.org/2022/07/cast-of-wonders-498-field-biology-of-the-wee-fairies/)

• Author: Naomi Kritzer (https://www.castofwonders.org/people/naomi-kritzer/)
• Narrator: Kara Grace (https://www.castofwonders.org/people/kara-grace/)
• Host: Katherine Inskip (https://www.castofwonders.org/people/katherine-inskip-2/)
• Audio Producer: Jeremy Carter (http://www.castofwonders.org/people/jeremy-carter/)
• Artist: Katherine Inskip (https://www.castofwonders.org/people/katherine-inskip-2/)

"Field Biology of the Wee Fairies" was previously published by Apex Magazine (https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/field-biology-of-the-wee-fairies/), September 4, 2018.

Click here to listen to Episode 498 (http://traffic.libsyn.com/castofwonders/Wonders498.mp3)

Content Warning:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When Amelia turned fourteen, everyone assured her that she’d find her fairy soon. Almost all girls did. You’d find a fairy, a beautiful little fairy, and catch her. And she’d give you a gift to let her go, and that gift was always beauty or charm or perfect hair or something else that made boys notice you. The neighbor girl, Betty, had caught her fairy when she was just nine, and so she’d never even had to go through an awkward adolescent stage; she’d been perfect and beautiful all along.

Not all fairies were equal, of course. Some of them would do a much better job for you. The First Lady Jackie Kennedy, for example, had caught the fairy
queen. Or so almost everyone said. “So keep your eyes open,” Amelia’s mother told her.

“I don’t want to catch a fairy,” Amelia said. “If I did catch a fairy, I’d keep her in a jar like my mice and study her.”

Tags:   biology, expectations, fairies, gifts, growing up, Jeremy Carter, Kara Grace, Katherine Inskip, Lodestar, Naomi Kritzer, science fair, sexism, Summer Spotlight, teen protagonist, young adult fiction