How to ditch your fairy.
by Justine Larbalestier
From the book: “I have a parking fairy. I’m fourteen years old. I can’t drive. I don’t like cars and I have a parking fairy. Rochelle gets a clothes-shopping fairy and is always well-attired; I get a parking fairy and always smell faintly of gasoline. How fair is that? I love clothes and shopping too. Yes, I have a fine family (except for my sister, ace photographer Nettles, and even she’s tolerable sometimes) and yes, Rochelle’s family is malodorous. She does deserve some kind of compensation. But why couldn’t I have, I don’t know, a good-hair fairy? Or, not even that doos, a loose-change-finding fairy. Lots of people have that fairy. Rochelle’s dad, Sandra’s cousin, Mom’s best friend’s sister. I’d wholly settle for a loose-change fairy.”
Okay before I start, I better give you a little background on how I read this book and where. Hehe. I read this whole book while dad and I were waiting in line at borders during black Friday. Hehe. Yeps, whole thing. Dad said maybe we should have paid a rental fee.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie, like most people in New Avalon, has a personal fairy. But Charlie doesn’t like her fairy, and with good reason. Her fairy is a parking fairy, which means that every time Charlie is in a car, the perfect parking spot is found, even when it wouldn’t normally be available. This means that family, friends, and acquaintances often “borrow” Charlie when they’re doing errands, just so they can get a parking space. So Charlie sets out trying to find a way to get rid of her fairy. She starts walking everywhere, never getting in a vehicle that would need a parking space, hoping to bore her fairy and make her leave. This causes problems, though, since Charlie is often late for school or class and starts getting demerits. Too many demerits.
As pressure rises, Charlie gets more desperate to get rid of her fairy. Fiorenza, a girl at Charlie’s school who has a fairy that makes all the boys her age “like” her, also wants to get rid of her fairy. At first Charlie doesn’t trust her, and starts disliking her when Steffi, the boy she’s interested in, falls for Fiorenza like all the other boys, but eventually the two work together to find a way to get rid of their fairies for good.
The school itself was hard to get used too, it’s a school for just sports and only sports. And you get in trouble for some of the dumbest things. I like sports a lot, but these people; wow. Still, it was different and I can see how that could happen in real life. I know here during home coming its all sports all the time.
The story really took off in chapter three; that’s where I got really interested in Charlie, and started caring about her. The book moves fast , with Charlie’s trying to solve her fairy problem, and creating other problems in her life. The tension builds, pushing Charlie to try greater and greater things to get rid of her fairy. Early on in the book, the reader discovers why Charlie wants to get rid of her fairy so badly, Charlie’s extended family, and even neighbors, frequently “borrow” her just so they can get a parking space when they do errands. This works beautifully, since Charlie’s determination to get rid of her fairy propels the book forward, and it helps the reader root for her. When we see Danders, a bully, abduct Charlie several times to get parking (which sets her back in her getting rid of her fairy) this increases the tension and makes the reader root for Charlie’s goal all the more. But this also brings up something I didn’t get too, here everyone is using her to get good parking places, throwing her in cars and what not, why didn’t her parents stop this? I mean I know it’s a story and all, but they had to see all the work she was putting into getting rid of this fairy; you’d think they would help her out.
I liked Charlie a lot, she took time to think things though, she was funny and she was very smart and eventually stood up for herself. She’s likable, tries to do the right thing, and, with a little help, sees past her prejudice and into the real person (Fiorenza). She also wants what we all want, such as to be liked, to get a love interest, and to make her life easier. Also having a fairy that makes you smell of gas would really suck.
I like the other characters too, they all seemed like kids I know here at school. I really like how fairies we so common in this world, and how there seemed to be one for everything. Also liked how the book showed that sometimes wanting something that you think is going be sooooo cool, may not be once you get it. And how you can’t judge people but just what you see on the outside.
At the end of the book, Charlie has a very tough decision to make, and to be honest; I am not sure I could make it.
The book is very good and I recommend it to anyone to read, I read it in one…..ah….standing, that’s how good it was.
Oh!! One thing for parents, I hear all the times parents say they don’t understand the slang words we use; hehe. Well this book is full of slang, but don’t worry. In the back is a directory of what each word means. J
So go out and pick this one up guys, you’ll really like it.
Darcy
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