I never thought it could happen in my house, but the marketing moguls over at Disney would be proud: the fairies have taken over our lives. But at least it looks like they may be doing it with a more respsonsible worldview.

Georgia was enchanted by Tinkerbell because of "Peter Pan," a movie that encompasses all that is good (great performances, gorgeous animation, thrilling story) and bad (sexism, racism, violence, lots of teachable moments) about Disney movies. Feisty, sassy Tink is her favorite character, and she saw Miss Bell on the cover of a book at the library, so Hova checked it out, with some trepidation.

He was surprised by the clever, carefully charted world of the Never Fairies, and by the elegant and intelligent writing. He and Georgia dashed through Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg in record time, and had started it again when I checked out Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand. Both books have been read three times and counting. Little did we know that Gail Carson Levine is not some hack churning out formulaic stories of pretty girls gazing at themselves in the looking glass. She is the Newbery Honor-winning author of Ella Enchanted and many other beloved and well-reviewed fairy and princess books, so she knows a thing or two about the tiny winged beings and interesting, powerful female characters. Even the smaller pocket stories, moral-driven novellas about different fairies by various authors, are compelling and true to the world Levine has crafted, if not nearly as beautifully written.

The Never Fairies have almost completely replaced princess play in our house, a big relief to King Triton Hova and Queen Eleanor Belinda (yes, we know there is no mother in the Little Mermaid, but Georgia likes to add characters as the needs arise). Hova and I say: Fairies rule, princesses drool. Princesses are powerless to think their way out of their terrible situations, and wish and wait for a man to come save them from their lives The fairies each have talents that are the key to their joy, from repairing pots and pans, to farming, to carpentry, each fairy does something with a full heart and a sense of purpose. They make some bad decisions, and grow wiser as they work their way home. The family of fairies is important, but each fairy has to be true to herself. Best of all, since fairies are born of a baby’s first laugh, there’s no real sexuality. There is a male fairy’s (that’s a sparrowman) unrequited crush on his dear friend Tinkerbell, but the fairies’ love of each other is a love of community and caring. Of course there is a focus on clothing and beauty (I mean, the Disney Stores gotta sell product somehow), but it’s mostly a beauty of nature, and what can be created from what is readily available. And though the fairies are all shades of skin, and various levels of skinny and attractive, there is still a homogenization that surely comes from intensive focus groups.

But the focus groups must also be reflecting a greener tack. The highest valued commodity in Fairy Haven is fairy dust, which is evenly and fairly distributed. The fairies live in a commune where everyone has to work toward the good of the whole. They recycle, they care for animals, they are vegetarians and they nurture the earth. They see themselves as a part of something much bigger, and they all appreciate their responsibility to their world. There is hope, through conscientious living and voluntary hard work done with joy. It fits right in to what we are trying to teach Georgia, without the bleak, cranky message that her world is doomed. If Disney is on-message there may be hope for our world yet!