by Janette Rallison
ages: 10-14
Publication date: January 6, 2009

Sixteen-year-old Savannah has a perfect life… or at least the perfect boyfriend. That is, until he decides that he’s more attracted to, and compatible with, Savannah’s older sister, Jane. All of a sudden, things are looking pretty bleak: after all, who will take Savannah to the prom? Enter Chrissy, Savannah’s “Fair” (she’s going to school, and hasn’t quite earned the whole “fairy” part yet) Godmother. She grants (well, sort of) Savannah three wishes, which creates a bit of a mess. Savannah’s sent back to the Middle Ages in the role of Cinderella, then Snow White, and then Chrissy sends Savannah’s friend Tristan back to become a prince. By this time, Savannah’s a bit fed up with Chrissy, yet Savannah braves the Middle Ages one more time to help Tristan accomplish his quest. And possibly fall in love in the process.

I read this one out loud to C, and aside from a few pages in the prologue where I was wondering if it was a bit too high-school-romancey for her, we both really enjoyed it. It was more fluff than depth, but I thought it worked well for the tale. Savannah spent most of the book being dogged on by other people (she didn’t take school seriously enough, she was just underfoot), but in the end, she understood things and worked with what she had quite creatively. Additionally,there was sufficient adventure to keep C interested (but not too many cliffhangers), and Rallison uses the traditional fairy tales quite creatively. We both especially liked her treatment of the Snow White story.

And it had the most important requirement for reading aloud (at least in our house): lots of fun characters with accents. (My personal favorite was Clover T. Bloomsbottle, the jaded leprauchan.) It was also pretty funny; I’m not sure how much of the humor C “got”, but I was laughing at all the asides and clever references. I’m not sure how well this would stand up if I had read it by myself, but I really enjoyed reading it aloud.

Which is okay, too.