The Fairy Circus, by Dorothy Lathrop

I feel so fortunate to have been able to get my hands on this book! It wasn't reprinted, and is very rare and expensive, so I was amazed when my interlibrary loan copy came in the mail. The Fairy Circus is a very simple story- a circus comes to and covers the entire meadow, and the fairies find themselves trapped inside the tent. After being utterly amazed, they decide to create their own circus using improvised instruments and friendly animals, but they have to move quickly before the full moon disappears! Salamanders become seals, turtles double as elephants, squirrels become lions complete with manes (after wrapping their tails around their necks), and the fairies themselves perform on improvised trapezes.

Much of the text is description, but the true wonder of this book is in the author's own illustrations. For a sample of them, see here. The book itself isn't difficult to summarize, but the illustrations make it truly exceptional.