Today I have reviews of two books written by Sarah Mlynowski and perfect for kids who enjoy a sprinkle of magic, fairies, and wishes.

The Sister Switch (book two from Sarah Mlynowski’s Best Wishes series and cowritten with Debbie Rigaud—author of several young-adult and middle-grade novels) is about Addie, the middle sister of three sisters who, unlike Addie, seemingly never get in trouble and can do whatever they want.

The lament of middle children everywhere.

About the Book

 

One morning, a surprise package appears on Addie’s front porch, addressed to her.

She opens it to discover a letter from someone she doesn’t know and a beautiful bracelet.

When her elder sister, Sophie, pesters her to hurry up so they aren’t late to school, Addie, annoyed that she can’t do what she wants, puts the bracelet on and shouts, “…I am always in the middle of you and Camille—and I wish I wasn’t.”

Suddenly, she feels the bracelet tighten on her wrist and realizes that it’s a magical bracelet and has just made her wish come true: she has switched bodies with Sophie.

But Sophie hasn’t switched bodies with her.

Sophie is now in the body of their five-year-old sister, Camille.

Camille is in the body of Addie. (Great job on the plotting and keeping everything straight, Sarah Mlynowski!)

This is definitely a Freaky Friday sort of story.

While Addie is excited to take advantage of being the eldest child, ultimately she realizes that each sister has her own responsibilities and expectations from parents, teachers, and friends.

The next book in this series, available in November, is Time After Time, cowritten with Christina Soontornvat, the author of The Last Mapmaker.

In Just Dance, book fifteen in Mlynowski’s Whatever After series, Abby (funny how the main characters’ names are so similar in these books) is worried about the upcoming school dance because she’s afraid she’s going to make a fool of herself in front of everyone.

About the Book

• Author : Sarah Mlynowski
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08ZHQBQCR
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scholastic Press (June 28, 2022)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 28, 2022
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 137 pages

 

But before she can decide whether she’s even going to go, she and her little brother, Jonah, have to save Maryrose, a fairy who is living in their house.Maryrose has been sending Abby and Jonah into all the Whatever After fairy tales, but now she’s becoming weak and having trouble performing her fairy duties.

It’s up to Abby and Jonah to jump into another fairy tale to save her—this time it’s the tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

I love the idea of tweaked fairy tales—as this series is all about.

There are lessons to be learned here, too, one of which is to have fun and not worry about what others think of you.

Before reading these books—simply judging by the cover (bad, bad, bad)—I thought they were Chapter Books.

But even though each book is a quick read, uses simple language, and includes illustrations, they are more likely lower middle grade—for kids in the 7–10-year-old group.

Amazon puts them both in solid middle-grade territory for 8–12-year-olds.

The fact that they were published by Scholastic Press also gave me the impression that they were Chapter Books.

Scholastic and Chapter Book series were synonymous for me. (Remember those Scholastic Book Fairs at your kids’ elementary school? My kids would always come home with a new Chapter Book.)

But, of course, Scholastic publishes all kinds of genres.

In addition to these two series, Mlynowski has co-written the Upside-Down Magic eight-book series (lower middle grade/Chapter Book) with Emily Jenkins and Lauren Myracle, and many other young adult and adult novels.

One last thought.

Last week, I posted the review of One True Wish by Lauren Kate about a fairy and making wishes.

Today’s books are also about a fairy and wishes.

This reinforces a few ideas.

One, there’s nothing new under the sun as far as subject matter.

Two, the same subject handled by two different people turns it into a whole different book.

Three, the Voice of the author in any given story creates its own special vibe.

Four, I really like fairy and wishing stories.

Five, if you want to write a book, don’t worry if the subject has already been covered.

It hasn’t been written by you, so write it anyway.

I hope you get a chance to check out these books for yourself or the children in your life.

Go make your wishes come true.

~Gail

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