From the book jacket:
Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all—especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.
This book was bizarre.... in an fun/silly sort of way. In the opening chapter, the main character Charlie (short for Charlotte) is with her friend talking about spoffs. Okay what the heck are spoffs? If I would have looked in the back of the book for the trusty little definition guide, I would have stopped wondering what spoffs were [boobs] and move on to another odd word. Just remember, if you do read this book, check in the back for the guide or it will drive you crazy wondering what all those New Avalon slang words mean.
The setting in the story took some getting use to, especially because it didn't explain much and when it did, you were worried about some other quirky thing. In New Avalon (which is like NYC) instead of saying you have a natural gift or knack for something, you would say you have a fairy for that. It may sound a bit weird, but it's pretty genius symbolism if you ask me.
Even though the story-line became predictable, I still kept turning those pages. Maybe it was the characters (who were fairly well developed for a such a light book), maybe it was the quirkyness, or maybe it was just because I was dying to see if Charlie would truly loose that parking fairy; and if so, what kind of fairy would she get? Beyond all the fantasy/sci-fi stuff of New Avalon, trying to "starve" her fairy away, and dodging the parking fairy fanatic Danders Anders, Charlie learns a valuable lesson in accepting others.
Overall I still felt that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would; but I still recommend. Want something light and whacky? Read How to Ditch Your Fairy!
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If I had a fairy, it would be a "Great Taste in Colors" fairy and a "Good Book" fairy.
What kind of fairy [special quirky ability] do you have? (Some people have more than one "fairy")
Pages: 320 Year Published: 2008 Fiction: Fantasy/Sci-fi
Level: YA, ages 13+ This Book is For: Teen girls
Should I Waist My Eyes on This? Yes Buy or Borrow: Borrow
2 comments:
It looks hilarious! I think that I would get a Never-give-a-speech-again Fairy. :D
I think that might simply be Australian slang. I have a friend who lives in Australia, and I cracked him up by saying "roots" yesterday... you don't want to know what that's slang for.
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