Wicked Nix

August 1, 2018

Gr 3-5-Charged by the fairy Queen to keep the forest free of "peoples," Wicked Nix is furious when an old man moves into the abandoned cottage in the woods. Despite Nix's best fairy mischief, the man paints the cottage, plants a garden, and prepares to make a home. In a confrontation with Nix, the man is surprised to find Nix is not a real fairy but a boy, stolen by the fairies long ago. Nix's first-person narrative has a poignant charm; his journey from changeling to beloved brother and follower to hero, is smoothly developed at a lively pace. Secondary characters are precisely drawn and integral to the action. Black-and-white illustrations are scattered throughout. VERDICT Read alone or read aloud, Coakley's tale has a tangible sense of wonder that conjures a cozy magic. A strong purchase.-Janice M. Del Negro, GSLIS Dominican University, River Forest, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
When a man-people moves into the old cottage in the woods, Wicked Nix isn't happy.Having been given temporary responsibility for the forest, Wicked Nix is afraid that when the Good Queen returns from the Summer Country, she'll be angry to see a people living in the woods. That's not allowed, according to fairy rule. And if the Good Queen is angry at Wicked Nix, she might leave him behind again when all the other fairies go to the Summer Country at next Midsummer, like she did last year. So Wicked Nix sets to work trying to trick the man-people into leaving, using ideas inspired by his friends Mr. Green and Rose the Wise, a little girl-people with "strange and amazing powers." But as Wicked Nix learns more about the man-people, he begins to suspect all is not what it seems. Coakley offers up a secretive tale with an abundance of turns and surprises, illustrated with Zollars' black-and-white sketches (in which Rose the Wise presents black and the man-people and Wicked Nix have pale skin). The worldbuilding in this short tale occasionally feels forced and at times inconsistent, but readers pulled in by the premise will enjoy puzzling through unreliable-narrator Wicked Nix's mysteries.This dark twist on the old legend of stolen children is a spooky, compelling read. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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Starred review from September 1, 2018
Grades 2-5 *Starred Review* Nix, the foulest of the fairies, lives in the forest near a village, subsisting on fairy gifts from townspeople or anything he can scrounge up ( it's not stealing if you're a fairy ), all while waiting for the return of the fairy queen who abandoned him last summer. When a strange, bald man moves into a cottage in the forest, Nix is certain it will anger his queen and ruin his chances to be accepted back into her fold, so he sets out to use his mischievous fairy magic to scare the man away. But Nix's magic isn't very powerful, and the man in the cottage is quite wily. Readers will probably catch on early that Nix isn't truly a fairy, but that doesn't mean there's no magic here: some of Nix's fantastical-sounding tales turn out to be true after all, and there's plenty of empowering magic in his gradual realizations about family. Coakley nicely captures the salty, determined voice of impish Nix, who's utterly convinced of his own magic and feels most at home cradled in the trees, and she strikes a thoughtful balance between fairy tales and the realistic feelings of loss and love. An underlying message that freewheeling independence and family aren't mutually exclusive is particularly well-handled. The succinct, fairy-tale narrative style and heartwarming conclusion should make this especially appealing to kids starting to get a handle on chapter books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)