FAIRY IN WAITING

Fans find more magic mayhem in this sequel to Fairy Mom and Me (2018).

Ella’s good-hearted but inept Fairy Mom just wants to make things better, whether it’s finding a pet bird or enlivening a party. Ella can’t wait to be old enough to use magic herself. She watches as many of Mom’s online lessons with Fairy Tutor Fenella as possible. Until she gets a Computawand of her own, Ella serves as assistant and, in a bit of role reversal, often tells Mom the correct magic codes to undo her messes. Each episodic chapter is told through Ella’s eyes. In one, Fairy Mom disrupts Dad’s important lunch with his boss, Mr. Lee, and his wife, Mrs. Lee. Fairy Mom and Ella just want to find Mrs. Lee’s bird, but in the process they turn into monkeys! Oops. In another, Ella’s Not-Best Friend, Zoe, is underwhelmed by Ella’s birthday party. Fairy Mom is determined to impress with a big cake—but it keeps growing! Large typeface and plenty of dialogue make this easy to read, and the imaginative situations are captured in animated black-and-white cartoon art. In this throwback white-bread world, Dad is the annoyed authoritarian demanding, “No magic.” Characters are one-dimensional, and any diversity comes through secondary characters such as the Asian Lees. Activities at the close include a recipe as well as a word scramble, maze, and drawing prompt.

A cotton-candy read for transitional readers.