Fairy Godmothers Are For Wimps

Life isn’t going so great for Haley until she finds out one of her teachers is her fairy godmother.

Haley is a typical middle-schooler: Her older sister is seemingly perfect and gets all her parents’ attention; she has a tough time with her classes; the boy she likes doesn’t pay attention to her; and all she wants to do is eat junk food, hang out with her best friend and babysit the neighborhood kids. After a particularly tough day at school, she starts hearing her language arts teacher’s voice in her head and realizes that Ms. Hagglesworth, a warm, friendly, understanding woman who lets her students sit on the floor and drink tea, is her fairy godmother. Haley starts to depend on Ms. Hagglesworth to help her out of difficult situations—trying out for violin chair in band, forgetting her instrument and getting home on time after a night of babysitting. But Haley soon learns that the help she receives has a price, not the least of which is forgetting the impending due date for a science-fair project, something that slips her mind while she’s learning to fly with Ms. Hagglesworth and otherwise engaging in magic. The story has a few twists, including the ending, which changes the tone of the story. Veil, author of several young adult and children’s stories has mastered the vocabulary and tone of a kid’s lit; e.g., “ ‘Ank ew,’ I said with a very full mouth. My mom would have been very disappointed in my diet and my lack of manners. Ms. Hagglesworth was so much fun to be around.” Haley is a likable, sympathetic main character, and the supporting characters are also fleshed out. The pacing is exactly right; Veil takes time to set the scene and introduce characters before beginning the magical parts of the book. Finally, it’s an attention grabber, particularly when the plot turns darker toward the end of the story.

A page-turning tale about an appealing, young narrator suddenly thrust into a magical world.