Upside Down Magic (Sarah Mlynowski)

One of my grade 4 students gave this book to me MONTHS ago because he thought it would be good for book club. He'd ask me what I thought of it and I'd embarrassingly say I wasn't quite finished it yet (Why didn't I just say I hadn't started it yet??!) I finally started reading it and he's right! It is a great book.   Even better, when the kids in my class saw it on my desk, they were all excited. One, who NEVER comes to book club came to me and said, "Mrs. Ackroyd, I'd so excited about what we're reading next for book club!" Turns out, it is Upside Down Magic she is excited about. Guess we better read it!

It's a bit of Harry Potter and a bit of The Quirks. In this one adults are definitely on the outskirts of the story. I was a little sad that they never got their magic under control so that they could go to the school they wanted to go to. Although, maybe I should read the rest of the books in the series....


The magical characters, as told by Nory, the main character:

p. 87 This is Upside-Down Magic class, she thought. A Freezer, A Fierce, a girl who shrinks things, a girl who wets things, a boy who sees sound waves, two wonky Fluxers and a Flyer who can't come down from the ceiling.

Goodreads summary:

From New York Times bestselling authors Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins comes the hilarious and heartfelt story of a group of magical misfits.

Nory Horace is nine years old. She's resourceful, she's brave, she likes peanut butter cookies. Also, she's able to transform into many different animals. Unfortunately, Nory's shape-shifting talent is a bit wonky. And when she flunks out of her own father's magic academy, Nory's forced to enter public school, where she meets a group of kids whose magic is, well, different.

This new, offbeat series from hit authors Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins chronicles the misadventures of Nory and her oddball friends, who prove that upside-down magic definitely beats right side up.