How to Ditch Your Fairy

by Justine Larbalestier

Overview

If you lived in a world where everyone had a personal fairy, what kind would you want?

• A clothes-shopping fairy (The perfect outfit will always be on sale!)


• A loose-change fairy (Pretty self-explanatory.)


• A never-getting-caught fairy (You can get away with anything. . . .)

Unfortunately for Charlie, she's stuck with a parking fairy-if she's in the car, the driver will find the perfect parking spot. Tired of being treated like a personal parking pass, Charlie devises a plan to ditch her fairy for a more useful model. At first, teaming up with her archenemy (who has an all-the-boys-like-you fairy) seems like a good idea. But Charlie soon learns there are consequences for messing with fairies-and she will have to resort to extraordinary measures to set things right again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599905822
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/15/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Lexile:	580L (what's this?)
File size:	538 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Justine Larbalestier [Lar-bah-LUS-tee-ay] is the author of Liar and the award-winning Magic or Madness trilogy. She was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, and divides her time between Sydney and New York City (with sojourns in Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand, and anywhere else that strikes her fancy). She is married to author Scott Westerfeld. www.justinelarbalestier.com
Justine Larbalestier is the author of Liar, How To Ditch Your Fairy, and the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy. She was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, and divides her time between Sydney and New York City. www.justinelarbalestier.com

Editorial Reviews

Set in a futuristic fantasy city, this book puts a fun spin on fairy tales: fairies exist, but you may wish they did not. Charlie has a parking fairy, which means any driver Charlie is with can always find a choice spot (which in turn means that every time the brutish star jock at school gets behind a wheel he nabs Charlie). Charlie walks everywhere, hoping to ditch her fairy and the jock-but then she racks up tardiness demerits at her strict sports school. When Fiorenze, whose all-boys-will-like you fairy has captured Charlie's crush, also wants to get rid of her fairy, they team up to steal secret research compiled by Fiorenze's mother, an expert on fairies. It takes Larbalestier (the Magic or Madness trilogy) a long time to reach this point, but from here the pace quickens. The girls switch fairies, creating more trouble and pushing the girls to some serious (and seriously funny) extremes. Suggesting rather than exploiting the fictional possibilities of Charlie's city, which has as many rules as it has fairies, this vividly imagined story will charm readers. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)

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Publishers Weekly

Gr 6-10

In New Avalon, most everyone has a personal fairy. Charlie, 14, has a parking fairy; if she is in a car, a perfect parking spot is found on the first try. But since Charlie doesn't drive and hates exhaust, she thinks she's been cursed. Her friend Rochelle has a clothes-shopping fairy that makes everything look perfect on her, and her sworn enemy, Fiorenze, has an every-boy-will-like-you fairy. Charlie's attempts to starve her fairy away by walking everywhere just collects her demerits for lateness at New Avalon Sports High, where it is all sports all the time. When the water polo star virtually kidnaps her in his car for his illegal purposes and the "pulchritudinous" new boy on whom she has a crush falls for Fiorenze, Charlie needs to get drastic. She and Fiorenze forge an alliance and hatch a plan to switch their fairies, and she learns to be careful about what she wishes for. With the every-boy-will-like-you fairy, girls turn on Charlie, and she wonders whether Steffi likes her or if he is just responding to her fairy. Charlie is totally likable, smart, and sarcastic, a perfectly self-involved, insecure teen. At its core, this is a typical coming-of-age story, but the addition of the fairies, the slightly alternative setting, and the made-up slang make it much more. This "doos" (brilliant) fantasy will not be ditched.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME

School Library Journal

Charlie attends a magnet school for gifted athletes in a world where people are guided by unseen fairies with such special powers as styling good hair and finding loose change. Charlie is frustrated by hers, a parking fairy who guarantees that whatever car she's riding in will find a premium parking spot waiting at every destination. At 14, she'd rather have a clothes-shopping fairy or an every-boy-will-like-you fairy. Her efforts to rid herself of her fairy lead to a series of escalating mishaps involving the new boy at school, her archrival and multiple demerits. Things go awry when Charlie gets what she thinks she wants, and she must face some uncomfortable truths in order to solve the problems she's created. Larbalestier's repetitive use of creative slang will be familiar to those who enjoyed Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (2000, etc.). Fans of Larbalestier's award-winning Magic or Madness trilogy (2005, etc.) might be put off initially by the glib tone, but this comic coming-of-age novel will entertain teen readers. (demerits and suspensions, "List of Known Fairies Justine Thinks You Should Know," glossary) (Fantasy. 11-14)

Kirkus Reviews