Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School Series #1)

by Jen Calonita

Overview

Dive into book one of the best selling Fairy Tale Reform School series, from award-winning author Jen Calonita! What happens to the villains after happily ever after? 12 year old Gilly isn't so sure that she needs reforming for the (former) villains in Enchantasia…

Gilly wouldn't call herself wicked, exactly. But when you have five little brothers and sisters and live in a run-down boot, you have to get creative to make ends meet. Gilly's a pretty good thief (if she does say so herself).

Until she gets caught.

Gilly's sentenced to three months at Fairy Tale Reform School where all of the teachers are former (super-scary) villains like the Big Bad Wolf, the Evil Queen, and Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother. Harsh. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its heroic mission.

There's a battle brewing and Gilly has to wonder…just how good these bad guys really are?

The Fairy Tale Reform School series is perfect for:

• Tweens and teens - 12 year old girls and 8th grade readers will love this fun, fast-paced series
• Classrooms studying fractured and twisted fairy tales
• Read-alongs between parents and kids
• Engaging reluctant readers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492620815
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	02/02/2016
Series:	Fairy Tale Reform School Series , #1
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	106,092
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

About the Author

Jen Calonita has interviewed everyone from Reese Witherspoon to Justin Timberlake, but the only person she’s ever wanted to trade places with is Disney’s Cinderella. She’s the award-winning author of the Royal Academy Rebels and Fairy Tale Reform School series. Jen lives in Merrick, New York with her husband, two sons, and their two Chihuahuas, Captain Jack Sparrow and Ben Kenobi. Visit jencalonitaonline.com for more.

Read an Excerpt

Happily Ever After Scrolls

Brought to you by FairyWeb—magically appearing on scrolls throughout Enchantasia for the past ten years!

Fairy Tale Reform School Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary!

by Beatrice Beez

Poison apples, the sleeping curse, becoming a wolf's supper—five years ago, the citizens of Enchantasia quaked in fear at such evildoing. Well, no more! Thanks to one formerly despised villain, wickedness and criminal behavior are being wiped off the map.

"In the days following Cinderella's wedding, no one would even sell me a loaf of bread," says Flora, the princess's stepmother. Yes, that Flora. The one and only stepmonster who used Cinderella as unpaid help and tried to trick the prince into marrying one of her other daughters.

After Cinderella's misfortune became public, Flora was mortified. "I did some wicked things after Cinderella's—pardon me, Princess Ella's—father died," says Flora. "I was a terrible example for my two daughters. If we wanted to show our faces in Enchantasia again, I knew we had to change—especially me. From that revelation, FTRS was born."

Fairy Tale Reform School is the education program for the wicked and criminally mischievous that Flora created. It has won praise from Princess Ella herself for its success in turning villains into productive members of society. "Flora's transformation is astonishing," Princess Ella told Happily Ever After Scrolls exclusively. "I look forward to seeing their good works continue."

The school's roster of former students turned teachers is huge! There's the Wolf (the esteemed Professor Xavier Wolfington teaches history), the Sea Witch (Madame Cleo is FTRS's etiquette expert) and the Evil Queen (Professor Harlow teaches psychology and runs group therapy sessions).

"Thanks to our teachings, crime in Enchantasia has dropped to an all-time low," Flora says proudly. Since it opened, FTRS has welcomed more than five hundred gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, elves, mer-folk, and other fairy-tale students into its dormitories for grades six through twelve at its campus on the outskirts of Enchantasia near the Hollow Woods.

To celebrate FTRS's fifth anniversary, profiles of FTRS's teachers will be magically popping up on Happily Ever After Scrolls in the coming weeks. Check your scrolls often for more coverage!

Editorial Reviews

01/26/2015
Calonita (the Belles series) blithely samples from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and folklore in this lighthearted first book in the Fairy Tale Reform School series. Gilly is the 12-year-old daughter of a poor cobbler who lives in a boot, and she has a habit of stealing to support her family. But Gilly’s petty thefts result in her being shipped off to the Fairy Tale Reform School, founded by Cinderella’s formerly wicked stepmother in an effort to eradicate evil from the kingdom of Enchantasia and “turn wicked delinquents and former villains into future heroes.” The stakes are already high for Gilly—while she’s trapped at the FTRS, she’s anxious about how her family will make ends meet—before she becomes embroiled in a plot within the school, which may affect several of the reformed fairy-tale instructors. Recognizable fairy-tale characters abound (profiles of the school’s instructors, like Xavier Wolfington, the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, appear throughout), and questions of whether goodness or badness run to the core of a person leave readers with plenty to consider. Ages 10–12. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This enjoyable series launch creatively incorporates familiar fairy-tale characters and hallmarks—princesses, talking mirrors, spells, and magical beings, from fairies to ogres—along with an engaging and spirited protagonist, abundant plot turns, and witty touches. Overall, there’s much to amuse and entertain fans of classic tales with a twist." — Booklist

"Calonita blithely samples from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and folklore in this lighthearted first book in the Fairy Tale Reform School series.... Recognizable fairy-tale characters abound (profiles of the school’s instructors, like Xavier Wolfington, the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, appear throughout), and questions of whether goodness or badness run to the core of a person leave readers with plenty to consider." — Publishers Weekly

"Gilly’s plucky spirit and determination to oust the culprit will make Flunked a popular choice for tweens" — School Library Journal

"Gilly hates the royals and blames them for her family’s poverty. So robbing from the royals doesn’t bother her at all. Unfortunately it’s still a crime and lands her in Fairy Tale Reform School. But this school is not what she expected, and it just might make a hero of her yet. Fairy tale fans will love this clever and lively tale of magic, friendship, and courage. " — Discovery Girls

"Flunked sounds incredibly innovative and appears to be turning the story of Cinderella’s stepmother upside-down. I for one am dying to see the real reason behind Flora’s reform school and what is really going down in Enchantasia." — B&N Kids Blog

"A reform school where all the teachers are former villains. Kinda writes itself, right" — SLJ Fuse 8

"Readers will recognize and enjoy the various fairy tales referenced here, as Calonita nods to movie adaptations as well as the original stories, and they’ll enjoy her sly incorporation of social media to provide important background informa- tion and character sketches...this clever novel and its smart, endearing cast of characters will have readers enchanted and eager for the implied sequel(s). " — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"A spoof on folktales… would be enjoyed by students preferring fast-paced mysteries. Recommended" — School Library Connection

From the Publisher

03/01/2015
Gr 4–7—Twelve-year-old Gilly is mostly happy living in a shoe with her parents and five siblings. Times are hard, though, especially since Cinderella's fairy godmother stole Gilly's father's design for the glass slipper. To help feed her family, Gilly steals food and trinkets from the wealthier residents of Enchantasia. Upon her third arrest for theft, Gilly is sentenced to three months in Fairy Tale Reform School, a juvenile detention facility run by Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother and other famous fairy tale antagonists. Fans of Liesl Shurtliff's Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin (Knopf, 2013) and Christopher Healy's The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (HarperCollins, 2012) will find much to love in this fast-paced romp. While Gilly picks pockets without remorse, previously evil fairy tale villains have turned over a new leaf. The Evil Stepmother has made amends with Princess Ella and now helps Enchantasia's youngest criminals embrace their own inner virtue. The Big Bad Wolf is now Professor Wolfington, a popular teacher despite his bulging muscles and wolfish grin. While gargoyle attacks, suspicious behavior, and magical mayhem provide plenty of action, Gilly's constant self-sacrifice and insatiable need to spy on her teachers get old quickly. Drawings of news scrolls throughout the story help break up the text and may entice reluctant readers, though seasoned readers will predict the true antagonist long before the big reveal. VERDICT Gilly's plucky spirit and determination to oust the culprit will make Flunked a popular choice for tweens.—Leigh Collazo, Dulwich College, Suzhou, China

School Library Journal

2014-12-22
When 12-year-old Gilly, eldest daughter of the shoemaker, is caught with stolen goods, she is sent to Fairy Tale Reform School for rehabilitation.Life as a commoner in Enchantasia, a fairy-tale kingdom ruled over by Cinderella, Snow White, Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty) and Rapunzel, is hardly ideal. Poverty, crime and social unrest plague this less-than-magical land. Gilly's father, inventor of Cinderella's famous glass slipper, struggles to feed his large family. Gilly's thievery is both her attempt to help her family as well as her revenge against the unfair caste system. A three-strike rule finds her arrested and sentenced to reform school. However, mysterious events during Gilly's incarceration reveal that life in Enchantasia might be a lot less magical than even she thought. With the Evil Queen and the Wolf for teachers and trolls, mermaids and fairies for friends, Gilly's rehabilitation promises to be exciting. Unfortunately, in spite of a magical cast of characters and some genuinely sweet moments among Gilly and her friends and family, this fractured fairy tale falls flat. Hobbled by a stale premise, one-dimensional characters and forced dialogue, this first installment in a new series is less than promising. For a more enjoyable spin across similar territory (though without the petty crime), try Shannon Hale's The Storybook of Legends (2013) instead. (Fantasy. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews