Change is good (Gone With The Wand: Margie Palatini)

By Luisa LaFleur, The Children’s Book Review
Published: July 28, 2009

Everybody has days when we wish we could be someone else, or do something else. Kids, too. I know my three-year-old is always trying on new hats (figuratively and literally!). I recently came across a book that helps our little ones see it’s okay if they aren’t too good at one thing because that gives them the opportunity to try something else.

Gone With The Wand

by Margie Palatini (Author), Brian Ajhar (Illustrator)

Reading level: Ages 4-8

Hardcover: 40 pages

Publisher: Orchard Books (April 15, 2009)

In Gone with the Wand, by Margie Palatini, one little fairy has lost the will to be a fairy godmother. She’s got a kind of “fairy-block” and she can twirl her wand around but nothing much happens. To help her out of her quandry, her tooth-fairy friend gets her to try out different fairy occupations: fairy dusting, snow fairy, sugarplum fairy….but she isn’t very good at any of them. They keep at it and eventually find the fairy’s calling.

This cute story is a perfect example of the persistence of trying. It was lots of fun to read and its underlying messages of
optimism and confidence were well-received. Sometimes we fail and have to try again but the hope is that we’ll end up happier than we started. Who doesn’t need to be reminded of this
once in a while?

Publisher’s synopsis: “If yours truly, Edith Molarnari, tooth fairy second class, hadn’t seen it with my own two peepers, I wouldn’t have believed it myself — Bernice Sparklestein, once the best fairy godmother in the biz, having a bad wand day. A very bad wand day.”

Margie Palatini’s heartwarmingly hilarious story about helping friends and finding your place in life along the way, and Brian Ajhar’s beautifully fun illustrations will have both children and adults giggling out loud.

Add this book to your collection: Gone With The Wand

Other books by Margie Palatini you may like: Piggie Pie! and Moo Who?