When Freddie meets a little fairy stuck in a tree, he helps her out, and she gratefully grants him wishes, although she explains she can't hear very well. There follows a string of wishes that go wrong: a dog becomes a frog; a cat becomes a bat; a mouse becomes (you guessed it) a louse! And so it goes. It is only when the Fairy Queen appears and explains to Freddie that he must obey three golden rules if he is to get his wishes, that he realises his mistakes. He mustn't mumble, he mustn't turn away, and he mustn't cover his mouth when he speaks to the fairy. With this good advice in mind, Freddie gets most of his wishes: 'So Freddie learnt the three gold rules and now he speaks quite clearly, and everything he wishes for comes true - or very nearly.' The final page showing Freddie with a large gorilla rather than a caterpillar gives us a funny but realistic ending. This is brilliant! The rhyming couplets, the super illustrations full of detail and liveliness - all provide a lesson with humour and panache.