Fifth Grade
Worksheets
The Mystery of the Cottingley Fairies
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer. He created the famous book character Sherlock Holmes. The fictional detective Holmes always solved his cases by using logic. But Doyle, perhaps because he was a writer, had some whimsical ideas. He believed in fairies.
Francis Griffiths was ten years old. Elsie Wright was sixteen. The girls lived near a village called Cottingley in England. The girls returned from a walk one day in 1917. They had some exciting news! They told everyone that they had seen fairies. The girls said they had even taken photographs of the fairies! Some were dancing in a ring in the grass. Some had fluttered close to the girls' faces. Many people wanted to see the photographs. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was very interested.
