SOLVED. Children's or YA Fantasy - Male fairy with an exceptionally powerful wand, arrogant rival with a expensive yet less powerful wand, two human children that the male fairy teaches and who are threatened by this rival. [s]

[C]

I read this book in the early 2010's I believe. Book didn't seem to be very old, but my sense of judgement may be wrong because I was quite young. Book borrowed from a library in Melbourne, Australia.
Unknown author.
Unknown title.
Unknown publishing details.
Physical book/dead tree.
English language.

Vague Plot Details: (Potential spoilers?)



- main character is a male fairy(?) who has a seemingly ordinary wooden wand (considered ordinary because everyone else had or wanted expensive fancy wands with jewels embellished on them, where the jewels would help with magic storage and spell-casting)

- main character had a wealthy rival(?) who owned an expensive wand and they both had to demonstrate their magic in a competition/performance/formal demonstration(?) - the male rival made a specific show of growing strawberries from a seed to fully grown with extremely large fruit, but it was indicated in the book that these strawberries were too large and artificial-tasting to be considered good magic

- main character demonstrated his magic power, as well as his wand's power, by asking a judge/audience member to hold the wand and see for themselves the level and stores of power he had access to

- main character was connected somehow to 2 human children - human children had a gift for magic?

- one of the children was a girl with curly red hair - I think she was a bit haughty/rude as well

(This was all from the first half of the book - can't for the life of me remember what happens in the second half, so I apologise for not providing further details)



Book Cover: male with two children (on a flying carpet?) - a young boy and young girl (girl has curly red hair)


Please help me find this book, it's been at the back of my mind for ages now :) thank you! Sorry I don't have any more details to provide.

[Becca]

It sounds like the book that Chloe is looking for in this post:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

That post hasn't been solved either, but hopefully by combining details we can find it!

[Chloe]

Becca you’re right, this is the same book. Hopefully both of us can find it!

[Becca]

I think I've found it! The Truth about Magic by Dave Luckett.

[C]

Becca wrote: "I think I've found it! The Truth about Magic by Dave Luckett."

Oh my god, this IS it! Thank you so much! How did you find it??? I am guessing it was based off of Chloe's recollection of the book, because my description was FAR more vague in comparison.

[Becca]

You're very welcome! It was the fact that Chloe listened to it as an audiobook that really helped, because I suddenly realised that I could filter results on the WorldCat Fiction Finder by 'audiobook' instead of 'book' and get far fewer results to look through. So I searched 'faerie' and filtered by 'audiobook' and 'juvenile', which gave less than 100 hits, and there it was! Your description of the cover was really great for confirming it too.

[C]

Becca wrote: "You're very welcome! It was the fact that Chloe listened to it as an audiobook that really helped, because I suddenly realised that I could filter results on the WorldCat Fiction Finder by 'audiobo..."

That's amazing! I had no idea you could do that. I will be sure to try that next time I am struggling to find a particular book. I am also glad my description of the cover helped in some way. Thanks again! Your sleuthing skills have made my day, especially since I had no idea people even saw or remembered my post and were actively looking for the book. :D

Thank you as well, Chloe, for providing such good information to help Becca with finding the book! :D

Now to figure out how to make sure this post goes into the 'Solved' pile in this forum.

[Kris]

C, glad you found your book! Thanks for the update.