Violet the Painting Fairy Read online

  I’m a wonderful painter — have you heard of me?

  Behold my artistic ability!

  With palette, brush, and paints in hand,

  I’ll be the most famous artist in all the land!

  The Magical Crafts Fairies can’t stop me!

  I’ll steal their magic, and then you’ll see

  That everyone, no matter what the cost,

  Will want a painting done by Jack Frost!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  Paint Problems

  Amazing Artist

  A Frosty Gallery

  Rainbow Fairies

  Color Confusion

  Picture Perfect

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “We’re not far from the lighthouse now, Kirsty,” said Rachel Walker. The best friends were walking along the cliff toward the Rainspell Island Lighthouse. “Dad said we can’t miss it! I wonder what he meant?”

  “We’ll find out soon!” Kirsty Tate replied. “I’m so glad we came to Rainspell for another vacation, Rachel. There’s no other place like it in the whole world!”

  The girls were spending their spring break on Rainspell Island. They were taking turns staying with Kirsty’s mom and dad at their bed and breakfast one night, and then with Rachel’s parents at the campsite the next night.

  “Plus, it’s an extra-special vacation because it’s Rainspell Crafts Week,” Rachel pointed out. “And because of our adventures with the Magical Crafts Fairies!”

  When the girls arrived on Rainspell Island a few days earlier, Kayla the Pottery Fairy had invited them to Fairyland, where a Crafts Week was also taking place. Kayla and the other Magical Crafts Fairies were organizing the event. Kayla told the girls that King Oberon and Queen Titania would choose the most beautiful crafts, and use them to decorate their royal palace.

  But as the queen welcomed everyone to Crafts Week, Jack Frost and his goblins had hurled paint-filled balloons into the crowd! The Magical Crafts Fairies and even Queen Titania herself had been splattered with bright green paint. In all the chaos and confusion, Jack Frost and his goblins had stolen the Magical Crafts Fairies’ special objects. They were the source of the fairies’ powerful magic!

  Jack Frost had declared that he was the best artist ever, and he’d taken the magic objects to ensure that no one else could ever outdo him. As everyone watched helplessly, Jack Frost had magically whisked himself and the goblins away, to hide the objects in the human world. The fairies had been horribly upset, but Rachel and Kirsty stepped forward right away to offer their help. The girls were determined to prevent crafts everywhere from turning into complete disasters!

  “Thank goodness we already found Kayla’s vase, Annabelle’s pencil sharpener, Zadie’s thimble, and Josie’s ribbon,” Kirsty said. “I really enjoyed our pottery, drawing, sewing, and jewelry-making workshops.”

  “Me, too,” Rachel agreed. “But they would have been totally ruined if the fairies hadn’t gotten their magic objects back just in time!”

  Kirsty nodded. “I can’t wait to try Polly Painterly’s class at the lighthouse today,” she said eagerly. “Painting is one of my favorite things!”

  “But what do you think the class will be like, now that Violet the Painting Fairy’s magic paintbrush is missing?” Rachel asked anxiously.

  “Well, as Queen Titania always says, we have to wait for the magic to come to us and see!” Kirsty reminded her.

  Suddenly, Rachel spotted the lighthouse up ahead of them.

  “Now I see what Dad meant when he said we couldn’t miss it!” She laughed. The lighthouse was painted in bold blue and white stripes, and the top was bright red.

  “I read in the Crafts Week pamphlet that Polly Painterly is the lighthouse keeper, and a famous local artist, too,” Kirsty said as they walked up to the colorful building.

  “She must be pretty busy, then!” Rachel remarked. There was a sign taped to the door — PAINTING CLASS IN THE LANTERN ROOM TODAY. The girls went inside and began climbing the spiral staircase up to the very top. The walls were lined with pretty watercolor paintings of Rainspell Island, all signed Polly Painterly.

  “These are beautiful,” Kirsty said. “Look, Rachel, this is the forest where we met Ruby the Red Fairy.” She pointed at one of the paintings.

  “Our very first fairy adventure!” Rachel said with a smile.

  The first thing Rachel and Kirsty noticed when they reached the lantern room at the top of the lighthouse was the stunning view. Through the enormous window that ran all the way around the circular room, they could see sailboats bobbing on the sea, golden beaches backed by white cliffs, the village of little cottages, and the rolling countryside.

  In the room, a group of kids wearing painting smocks were standing behind easels, waiting for the class to start. Meanwhile, a woman with bright pink streaks in her blonde hair was handing out palettes, brushes, and tubes of paint.

  “Hi, girls,” the woman called. “I’m Polly Painterly. Come and join us!”

  “I’m Kirsty, and this is Rachel,” Kirsty explained, noticing that there were lots more paintings propped along the walls of the lantern room. “We were just admiring the view!”

  “Wonderful, isn’t it?” Polly sighed happily. “It inspires all my work.” She gave the girls some painting materials and smocks to protect their clothes, then clapped her hands for silence.

  “Welcome to Rainspell Lighthouse,” Polly said. “I can’t wait to show you all how much fun painting can be!

  First, we’re going to mix up some colors. Let’s start with yellow and blue, then we’ll try yellow and red. Can anyone guess what colors those will make?”

  “Yellow and blue make green,” Kirsty said, remembering something she’d learned in school.

  “And yellow and red make orange,” a boy next to Rachel added.

  Polly showed everyone how to squeeze the paints onto their palettes and mix them with their brushes. But Kirsty was horrified to see that her yellow and blue mixture ended up a sludgy gray color, not green at all!

  Then she tried swirling the yellow and red paint together, but that turned gray, too.

  “This is awful!” Rachel groaned, making a face. “All I get is gray!”

  The other kids were having the same problem. Polly looked bewildered. “Try mixing red and white,” she suggested. “You should get pink.”

  Everyone did what she said, but once again all the mixtures turned a dull gray! The paint was also very thin. It began to dribble off the palettes onto the floor, making a complete mess.

  “Why is everything going wrong?” Polly wondered aloud, frowning. The girls glanced knowingly at each other. This was all because of Jack Frost!

  “It must be a bad batch of paint,” Polly decided. “I’ll grab some more and clean all the brushes, too. While I’m gone, take a look at my paintings to get some ideas for your own work.” Clutching the dirty brushes, she disappeared down the spiral staircase.

  “What a disaster, Kirsty,” Rachel whispered as they studied a painting of a sailboat. “As long as Violet’s magic paintbrush is missing, our paintings will be terrible!”

  Kirsty peered closely at Polly’s painting. “Rachel,” she whispered, her voice full of excitement, “see that strange, glowing light on the tip of the sail?”

  “What is it?” Rachel breathed, her eyes wide.

  As the girls watched, the light headed directly toward them! Then it transformed into a little fairy, who fluttered right out of t
he painting.

  “It’s Violet!” Kirsty whispered, grabbing Rachel’s arm. “Violet the Painting Fairy!” Kirsty hoped she had news about her missing paintbrush.

  Rachel and Kirsty moved closer together to hide Violet from the other kids as she flew toward them. The little fairy winked. She was dressed in rolled-up overalls, a colorful striped top, and purple boots. Her dark ponytail was held in place with a tiny paintbrush.

  “Hello, girls,” Violet whispered. “As you already know, yellow and blue should not make gray! All my beautiful paint colors are ruined now that Jack Frost has my magic paintbrush. Will you help me get it back?”

  “Of course we will!” Rachel said right away. Violet beamed at the girls, but then a look of alarm crossed her face. The other kids were making their way toward the sailboat painting. Without another word, Violet dove headfirst into the pocket of Kirsty’s smock and disappeared from view.

  “I really like this painting,” said one of the boys. “The ocean looks so real.”

  “It’s almost like you could dive right into the waves,” Kirsty agreed.

  “Polly’s paintings are amazing,” another girl said. “I love this one of the beach in winter.”

  “Me, too,” said Rachel.

  “Give me a break!” a scornful voice piped up behind them. “Polly’s paintings aren’t so great. I can paint a million times better than that!”

  Everyone spun around in surprise. Kirsty and Rachel saw a boy wearing a long smock and a baseball cap standing at an easel on the other side of the room. He twirled his paintbrush expertly in one hand, glaring at Kirsty, Rachel, and the others.

  “Really?” Rachel asked. “Prove it! Can we see your painting?”

  The boy shrugged. “I just started,” he replied. “But sure, come and watch a painting genius at work!”

  Rachel and Kirsty went over to his easel, followed by the other kids. The boy’s canvas was almost blank, except for a blue streak at the top. But as everyone watched his confident brushstrokes, the painting began to take shape. Rachel quickly realized that the boy was doing a self-portrait, with the seashore in the background.

  “This painting is incredible!” Rachel murmured to Kirsty as the boy added some seagulls flying through the clouds. “You can almost see each grain of sand.”

  “And the waves look like they’re rolling right off the canvas,” Kirsty added. The only strange thing was that the boy had painted himself with very big feet! Kirsty glanced down and gasped when she saw the boy’s big feet under the easel.

  “You must be gasping with amazement at my wonderful painting!” the boy said smugly.

  “Oh — yes!” Kirsty said. She nudged Rachel. “Look at his feet,” she whispered to her friend. “He’s not green, but I think he might be a goblin!”

  Then Rachel noticed something, too — a few strands of long, icy hair poking out of the top of the boy’s smock.

  “It’s not a goblin, Kirsty,” Rachel whispered back. “It’s Jack Frost!”

  Just then, Kirsty felt a tiny hand tugging on her sleeve.

  “Jack Frost is using my magic paintbrush to paint his picture!” Violet whispered indignantly. Kirsty looked a little closer and saw a faint haze of shimmering magic around the brush.

  At that moment, Polly Painterly hurried back into the room. “I have new paint and clean brushes for everyone,” she announced.

  The other kids rushed over to collect their new materials. Meanwhile, Kirsty and Rachel stayed behind to confront Jack Frost.

  “We know you have Violet the Painting Fairy’s magic brush!” Kirsty said, looking at him sternly. “She’d like it back, please.”

  “No way!” Jack Frost declared with an icy sneer. “I love painting pictures, especially of myself. I have a wonderful gallery of self-portraits back at my Ice Castle. I plan to paint many, many more. No pesky fairies or silly human girls are going to stop me!”

  Clutching the paintbrush, he dodged around the girls and ran away down the spiral staircase.

  “Quick, Kirsty!” Rachel said urgently. “We can’t let him get away!”

  The girls quickly slipped out of the lantern room. No one noticed, because Polly was still giving out new painting supplies to the other kids.

  “It might be faster if Violet turns us into fairies.” Kirsty panted as they hurried down the stairs.

  “Great idea,” Violet agreed. Suddenly, they heard a familiar voice below them call, “Hello, girls!” Rachel and Kirsty glanced down and saw Artie Johnson, the Crafts Week organizer, walking up the winding stairs. With a squeak of alarm, Violet darted down into Kirsty’s pocket again.

  “Hi, Artie,” said Rachel as both girls stopped to let her pass. Jack Frost was getting away, Rachel realized, but there was nothing they could do just then.

  “We’re really enjoying Crafts Week,” Kirsty added.

  Artie beamed at them. “I’m glad to hear it,” she replied. “I’m also glad to see that some kids, like you, have nice manners — unlike that rude boy who just pushed past me!”

  Kirsty and Rachel glanced at each other. Jack Frost!

  “I’m here to check on the painting class,” Artie went on. “You’re not leaving already, are you?”

  Rachel thought fast. “We’ll be back in a little while,” she replied. “We just remembered that we, um, have something important to do first.”

  “See you later,” Artie said, heading up to the lantern room. The girls could see the rest of the spiral staircase below them, but Jack Frost had disappeared.

  “What now?” Kirsty asked, dismayed, as Violet popped out of her pocket.

  “Remember what Jack Frost said about the art gallery at his Ice Castle?” Rachel recalled. “Maybe he went there.”

  “It’s worth a try!” Violet agreed. With one twirl of her wand, she transformed the girls into tiny winged fairies. Then Violet waved her wand one more time, and a cloud of dazzling sparkles whirled them all away to Jack Frost’s Ice Castle.

  A few seconds later, Violet, Rachel, and Kirsty found themselves in Jack Frost’s art gallery. It was a gigantic room. The frozen walls were crammed with paintings in frames of carved ice. All the paintings were of Jack Frost in different poses! There were palettes, blank canvases, and tubes of paint lying all around the room.

  “Look — there he is!” Kirsty whispered as the three friends landed on top of one of the picture frames.

  Jack Frost was seated on a stool in front of an easel in the middle of the room. He had Violet’s magic paintbrush in his hand! He was painting another picture of himself, this time sitting on his ice throne. A group of goblins, wearing green smocks and berets, were busy framing and hanging the paintings all around the room.

  Rachel looked down and noticed that there was a big pile of paintings still waiting to be framed. Some goblins nearby were chipping away at blocks of ice, carving the frames as fast as they could.

  “These paintings are boring!” one of the goblins complained to the others. “They’re all of Jack Frost! Why won’t he paint any pictures of us?”

  “He says we’re not handsome enough!” another goblin grumbled.

  “Jack Frost won’t let us try the magic paintbrush, either,” said the goblin next to him. “He’s so mean!”

  The goblins’ conversation gave Kirsty an idea! She whispered to Rachel and Violet, and the three of them flew out of the gallery into the empty hallway.

  “The goblins have a lot of work to do,” Kirsty pointed out, her eyes twinkling. “I think they need some help! Violet, could you disguise me and Rachel as goblins?”

  Violet frowned. “Yes, but you know I don’t have all my magic powers without my paintbrush,” she replied. “And goblin disguises use a whole lot of magic! I’m not sure how long the disguises will last.”

  “We’ll be quick,” Kirsty promised. “I think I know how we can get the pa
intbrush back!”

  Violet nodded. She waved her wand, surrounding the girls with a magical ring of sparkles.

  The girls had been disguised as goblins before, but Kirsty was still shocked when she looked down at her hands and saw them becoming bright green! Rachel was turning the same shade of green. Her nose, ears, and feet were growing bigger, too. Kirsty felt her own nose and ears — they were enormous!

  “You both look very goblin-like!” Violet giggled as the girls hurried back into the gallery. “Good luck!”

  “I keep tripping over my feet!” Rachel murmured as she and Kirsty headed over to Jack Frost. He was just about to begin a new painting.

  “Should I clean your brush before you get started?” Kirsty offered. But Jack Frost didn’t even look at her.

  “Get me a fresh jar of water,” he ordered. Rachel ran off to grab it.

  “What about your brush?” asked Kirsty. “It looks awfully dirty.”

  “I’m out of blue paint,” Jack Frost snapped, throwing the empty tube on the floor. “Bring me some immediately!”

  Kirsty dug through the nearest pile of paints and found a tube of blue. Jack Frost snatched it from her, then grabbed the water from Rachel.

  “I could clean your brush quickly while you decide what to paint,” said Rachel innocently.

  Jack Frost ignored her. He dunked the magic paintbrush in the water, squeezed the blue paint onto his palette, and began painting with swift, sure strokes. The girls exchanged looks of frustration.