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18th out of 87 books
—
78 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Diary of a Fairy Godmother
Hunky Dory is at the top of her class in charm school. She can make flowers wilt like wet spaghetti. She can make thunder rumble like a whale's bellyache. And she can turn any prince into a frog-but she always changes them back. That's when she knows there'll be a problem
Paperback, 176 pages
Published
September 2nd 2006
by Hyperion
(first published January 1st 2005)
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Cute is the most fitting word I can think of. This book is just plain cute. Annoyingly cute at times. But also touching in its cuteness.
Make your own life, people. It's better than wishing for it.
Make your own life, people. It's better than wishing for it.
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Barky
rated it
This is a cute and fast read about a young witch (she’s only 100), Hunky Dory, and how she discovers who she really is. She’s going to school to learn how to be the best and most evil witch there is, but she discovers that she really likes granting people’s wishes – an absolutely no-no for the truly wicked. So she starts doing it on the sly, and finds that she likes the rush she gets from helping people. This odd fairy godmother streak in her gets her tossed out of school and home to find her...more
This book is soooo cute! It's about a young witch who is floating the idea of becoming a fairy godmother but her mom is really angry because, hey, she's supposed to be a witch! I love that Esme Raji Codell references a lot of of fairy tales like Cinderella, Rumplestilskin, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. If you've read/heard all those then you'd totally get a kick out of this novel. (I just wonder how many of today's kids have actually heard/been told those stories.) PLUS, there are songs in the ...more
Jordan
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who loves fantasies
Recommended to Jordan by:
My librarian
Shelves:
thebestbookiveeverread
This book is so much fun to read! It's about a ypung witch who wants to become a fairy godmother. But along the way, you notice that Hunky Dory meets some famous Disney characters you all know and love.
I listened to this book on CD. It was very cute. Honky Dory is a witch that doesn't have the money to attend Hogwarts. She and her classmates have quirky names and are in school to learn how to be witches that aren't exactly nice. Honky Dory runs into a fairy godmother at the christening of "sleeping beauty" and through much resistance on her own part decides that her destiny is to be a fairy godmother herself. This book is filled with twists and turns through Hogwarts terminology...more
I always try to read whatever Bria wants to read if I am not familiar with it.
This was a great book...very clever take on fairy tales and witches and fairy godmothers. I loved the way she intertwined the fairy tales we all know and love into Hunky Dory's Diary.
I also really liked the little life lessons that are interspersed throughout the book. Sometimes they are from the spell book that Hunky has to memorize for school, and other times she just runs into them through ...more
This was a great book...very clever take on fairy tales and witches and fairy godmothers. I loved the way she intertwined the fairy tales we all know and love into Hunky Dory's Diary.
I also really liked the little life lessons that are interspersed throughout the book. Sometimes they are from the spell book that Hunky has to memorize for school, and other times she just runs into them through ...more
The following is a booktalk I prepared for this book. It includes several quotes from the book that I believe would work very well to lure in some reluctant readers.
Diary of a Fairy Godmother
By: Esmé Raji Codell
Illustrated by: Drazen Kozjan
Hyperion, 2005
Grades 4-5, Ages 9-12
Booktalk:
I have not been alive very long, but I already have met a lot of nincompoops, and they come in all shapes and sizes and are hard to recognize by just lookin...more
Diary of a Fairy Godmother
By: Esmé Raji Codell
Illustrated by: Drazen Kozjan
Hyperion, 2005
Grades 4-5, Ages 9-12
Booktalk:
I have not been alive very long, but I already have met a lot of nincompoops, and they come in all shapes and sizes and are hard to recognize by just lookin...more
If you haven't read any of Ms. Codell, you really ought to. Besides this one, I've read the fantastic "Sahara Special" and "Viva La Paris" (if only I could find a kid who went for one of these...one day). Like those, "Godmother" contains humor, pathos and a clever plot line. Unlike those, it plays on, and into, a number of well-known and not-so-well-known fairy tales. The "Sleeping Beauty" reference reminded me of a similarly irreverent usage of that t...more
Lacey Louwagie
rated it
Recommends it for:
anyone who's ever been closeted
Shelves:
youngadultfantasy,
fairy-tales
The back of this book made it sound like it was going to be a retelling of Cinderella, which was why it interested me. Cinderella actually ended up having a rather small and unimpressive role near the end. This book relies quite a bit on being cutesy and clever as the author tries to address fairy tales in a hip way (example: Little Red Riding Hood swaps her cloak for a denim jacket). Esme inverts what we consider "good" or "bad" behavior in order to create the world that her...more
Cute. Not too memorable, but a cute re-imagination of fairy tales. Though there was one quote I really liked. When Hunky Dory, the witchy young heroine asks her mother what gift her baddest of the bad witch aunt bestowed upon her when she was born her mother responds "Curiosity killed the cat. So which will it be? Do you what to know or do you want to keep your cat?"
I really like this author. This book was pretty clever, but it wasn't neccessarily one of my favorites. It wasn't a very good read aloud book for 6th graders. The girls loved it, but the boys only tolerated it because they had to. It was very modern and incorporated most fairy tales well into the story.
This book put a really great spin on classic fairy tales. Hunky Dory, the "wickedest witch wherever the four winds blow" finds out that some people (fairy godmothers) use their powers for good instead of wickedness. So: will Hunky be good or evil? Read this book to find out!
Hunky Dory is at the top of her class in witch school, and her mother is thrilled at how wicked she can be. However, Hunky wants to become a Fairy Godmother and help people by granting good wishes. Find out how a bad witch turns good in this cute story for grades 3 to 5.
My kids loved this, but even though I read part of it and enjoyed the way she uses words, it was really written for kids and I just didn't ever really get engaged in it, so I put it down. This author is one of my new favorites. Her style of writing is delicious.
Very cleverly written book I picked up at a book fair for my 2nd grader. The basic story was easily understood by her, but not the nonstop added humor about witches, devils, and magic. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and will look for more by same author.
Oh that Hunky Dory, she could have been the 'wickedest witch wherever the four winds blow', but all she really wants is to be the best fairy godmother ever. Her mother is so disappointed and her friends are snickering behind her back. But when Lemon Droppings (former fairy godmother) and Hunky Dory (former wicked witch) swap places, so to speak, the magical, mystical, good vs. evil world goes topsy turvy. There's a twist on just about every fairy tale, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, Hansel and Gre...more
To be fair, I was so completely annoyed by the main character's name being Honky Dory that I couldn't get past it. The book itself was rather lackluster though. All in all, a disappointing read for me.
My daughter would rank this a little higher than I did. She'd give it four stars. But it just didn't "enchant" me in the same way and it did her. ;-)
(I admit we cheated --listened to it on CD.)
(I admit we cheated --listened to it on CD.)
AA saccharin tale about a born witch who would rather be a fairy godmother. Incorporates parts of Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty into the story. The narrator, who did use different voices for different characters, helped make it tooth-achingly sweet.
The current most evil witch in witch school turned good? Why not! This book has awesome graphics and chocolate moons. A funny story and an "I-can't-put-it-down" type of book.
Debrarian
added it
Fun play on fairy tales, a bit preachy (but in a niceish way) about being your own self. Young witch Hunky Dory turns out to have a knack for – gasp!—granting wishes.
A girl who was going to be the wicked witch of the west finds out about Fairy Godmothers and ..... to the dismay of her family.....things may change. Grades 4+
Elaine
added it
This is such a cute story . . . kind of like a fractured Fairy Tales. The author is a school teacher and I love her philosophies and teaching style. :-)
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This is part of the Battle of the Books this year. I enjoyed it, mostly because I like 'twisted' or 'fractured' fairy tales.
Mira
added it
I LOVE THIS BOOK.... well maybe only because i met the author and became like best friends with her lol but anyway yea its cute
What a fun book this was! I got a kick out of the character's, their names and their antics. Loved the voice of the reader.
Cute premise. The book is high on cuteness and positive messages, but low on characterization and plot. I kept waiting for something more, and the book never delivers.
Imaginative and clever with a smoothly flowing dialogue and first person narrative. Entertaining for both a child and a parent.
Hunky Dory is a witch but decides to listen to her heart when she feels so great granting wishes instead. There were so many fairy tales in this story-you name it-it was there.
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Esme Raji Codell is the recipient of a prestigious James Patterson Pageturner Award for spreading the excitement of books in an effective and original way. She has been a keynote speaker for the International Reading Association and the American Library Association, a “virtual” keynote for the National Education Association’s “Stay Afloat!” online conference for first-year teachers, and a featured...more
More about Esmé Raji Codell...
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