I read this as a child and remembered it for over fifty years, until finally my brother gave me a copy (at my request). He gave me the original hc, but I am glad to see it has now been reprinted in pb. I remembered only the
basic plot outline, which I defined as "Silas Marner with dwarves" --three sour solitary dwarves are softened by raising a foundling fairy boy. Reading it, I found it had several interesting secondary characters with their own subplots --the rather foolish Squirrel, the snobbish wealthy (from a perfume business) skunks, and so on, all interacting with the boy and the dwarves. The other bit I remembered from my youth was the near-fatal illness of one of the dwarves, which was quite moving, though it ended well. ( )