My Unfair Godmother

March 15, 2011

The sequel to My Fair Godmother (2009) pits the distracted, wayward Chrysanthemum Everstar, moonlighting as a tooth fairy while maneuvering to enter Fairy Godmother University, against a confused 17-year-old girl who acts out angrily in response to the divorce of her parents. Tansy Miller's idyllic childhood was ruptured when her parents move to separate states; eventually she is sent to live with her librarian father—formerly her beloved reading buddy, now remarried in Rock Canyon, Ariz.—and mistakenly believes that a handsome, motorcycle-riding boyfriend named Bo will offer her the love she needs. Tansy's unhappiness attracts the attention of the fairy godmother apparatus: Chrissy tenders the requisite three wishes, which Tansy, in true teenage fashion, duly botches, and a really madcap scenario involving Robin Hood and his mangy Merry Men ensues. Moreover, Tansy's desire to have "something like the Midas touch, but more controllable," hurls her back into the Middle Ages to spin gold out of straw before Rumpelstiltskin snatches her firstborn. Rallison's pull-out-all-the-stops latest strains reader credulity (again!), but it's so determined to be likable and warmhearted and press all the right buttons that readers will surely be rooting for Chrissy and Tansy anyway. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

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July 1, 2011

Gr 6-10-Tansy Miller, 17, doesn't realize what a jerk her boyfriend is until she hears police sirens and the sound of his motorcycle driving away from the scene of a crime-without her on the back. From there things get even worse; she's tricked into implicating him to Hudson, the police chief's hunky son. She's been grounded indefinitely by her father, who she is now living with for the first time since she was seven. On top of all that, she is soon visited by her fairy godmother, Chrysanthemum Everstar, and Clover, a leprechaun. Unfortunately, her godmother is still in training, and the leprechaun cares more about visiting the pub than helping Tansy out of the difficult situations that Chrissy keeps putting her in. As Chrissy and Clover keep bungling Tansy's wishes, the teen encounters Robin Hood and his Merry Men before she is sent to the Middle Ages to live out the "Rumpelstiltskin" fairy tale. Tansy knows that in order to escape her fate, she'll have to promise the king's baby to the horrible little man, but what if she could find a way to change the ending so that she could escape back to modern times. Fortunately for Tansy, Hudson is with her throughout. The fracturing of different fairy tales makes this story a bit more interesting than a standard teenage romance, and the ending hints at a sequel.-Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR

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