Mythical Creatures Revealed

First and second-grade Raina loved reading the fairy books authored by Daisy Meadows.  Each is a 70 page chapter book which follows two girls and a ridiculously-named fairy on their given adventure.  Our collection of Daisy Meadows Fairy books is vast, and Raina bequeathed them all to Lola this week.

Today, Lola picked up Sophia the Snow Swan Fairy (I'm serious, that's the actual title) and gave it a go.  In the opening pages, the author recaps previous adventures.  "This week, they were helping the Magical Animal Fairies find their lost animals because Jack Frost had stolen them.  The girls had already helped the fairies find a young dragon, a magic black cat, a phoenix, and a seahorse ... but there were still three animals left to return to Fairyland."  

Lola stopped reading and jumped into her questions.  "What's a phoenix?  How would you rescue one if it's on fire?  Aren't dragons dangerous?  Wait, are dragons even real?  Aren't they mythical creatures?"  (I was excited about her word choice -- we had seen a mythical creatures exhibit earlier in the summer.)  I assured her that phoenixes and dragons are not and were not real, as best as we know, so they are mythical creatures.  Dinosaurs were real -- we have plenty of evidence for them -- so they are not mythical.  She seemed satisfied with this explanation and kept on reading.  I went back to working.  

And then she asked me if fairies were mythical creatures.  I assured her that, yes, fairies are mythical and the book she was reading was fiction.  Then her next question made me both marvel at her brain associations and curse myself for not associating as much.  "Then is the Tooth Fairy a mythical creature?"  Uh, uh, damn.  I made a non-committal sound and then she added "The Tooth Fairy must be real.  It can't be a person.  No one would trade a tooth for money!"  

That was a close call.  Her reasoned skepticism kept her belief system intact... at least for a little while at least.