Shim and Shay's Wish — Steven E. Wedel

Shim and Shay don't like staying home alone while Mom and Dad go to work in the castle. Then one day a gnome tells the children how the fairies gave him a bag of gold. The children set off to ask for a bag of gold of their own so Mom and Dad won't have to work. But there are dangers they never could have imagined waiting in the wide world outside their village, including a monster in the forest.