Lisa Ann Scott

Chip has always been a tomboy and daddy’s girl and she’s never felt even the littlest bit self conscious about it… until her father dies and her mother decides to move Chip and her two sisters down south to live with her mother, Chip’s grandma. It doesn’t take long to figure out that Grandma doesn’t at all approve of Chip, who’s entirely too much like her Yankee father. As her perfect sisters prepare for the annual Miss Dogwood pageant – a pageant both Chip’s mother and show more grandmother won a swell – Chip feels even more left out. She likes who she is, the outdoorsy girl who loved her daddy and is determined to remember him no matter what, but what if the only way to make people, including her own family, like and love her is to be someone else? When Chip stumbles across Miss Vernie’s School of Charm, she decides that she’s willing to change to fit into her new life without father. Led by the supportive and quirky Miss Vernie, Chip struggles to fit into the straight-laced, judgmental southern society along with two fellow classmates (one messy and overweight, the other African American) and learns lasting lessons about being true to yourself and acceptance.

I struggled to keep my outrage in check as I read about tomboy Chip and her judgmental Grandma, who appears bent on tearing Chip down and making her feel worthless. This woman is horrible! Seriously. By the end of the novel, Chip’s mother finally starts standing up to her grandmother, but, in my opinion, neither was a very great role model for Chip. Still, this horrible grandmother offers an accessible way to present a variety of difficult topics to middle grade readers. Through Chip’s interactions with her Grandma, the reader is presented with racism, bullying, the ridiculous enforcement of gender roles, not to mention judgment and rudeness disguised as Southern hospitality.

Not only does School of Charm follow Chip’s growth, readers also follow the growth of her fellow classmates at Miss Vernie’s School of Charm. One of the best lessons illustrated by this debut from Lisa Ann Scott is the importance of who you are versus what you look like. All three girls face judgment and unequal treatment because of their physical appearance. There’s a fantastic scene in the novel when all three girls are working in Miss Vernie’s pond and end up with mud facials. As they stand together, peering at their reflections in the pond, Chip notes that, when covered with mud, all the girls look essentially the same. On the outside, they have physical differences, but at their core, they’re essentially the same and are all deserving of respect and fair treatment. show less

Brooke, a black girl, is playing in the meadow with her cat Patches when she rescues a dragonfly… and it turns out to be a fairy! Calla the fairy has blue skin and an adventurous nature; she’s ventured just a little too far from her home in Fairvana. Now that Brooke has saved her life, she must grant her seven wishes.

After careful though, Brooke wishes for one hundred cats. If one cat is awesome, more cats must be even better, right? Wrong. It’s fun at first, especially when her friend show more Izzy comes along, but she quickly discovers some problems. First, her own cat, Patches, has disappeared. Then there’s feeding and taking care of all those cats… then she makes an unpleasant discovery about where they came from! However, despite these drawbacks she and Izzy have fun. They clean out their savings to buy food for the cats (no endless supply of money here), talk Izzy’s parents into letting her keep one very friendly stray cat, Pumpkin, and make an extra trip to the library to pick up some books on taking care of cats. The story ends well with a nice set-up for the next volume, as Brooke plans her next wishes.

Black and white illustrations sprinkled throughout the book mostly focus on cute pictures of cats, but there are some sweet pictures of fairies, along with some gentle lectures on real friendship as the girls discover Calla’s social difficulties. I was thrilled to discover a beginning chapter book where the minority is the main character - NOT the friend or sidekick and she seems to be prominently featured in all the succeeding books as well.

Verdict: For fairy lovers this will be a great fill-in series, with an added fillip of diversity.

ISBN: 9781338120974; Published 2018 by Scholastic; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

{My thoughts} – This is a fun new mermaid book for young children. Nixie is a about to be able to join the Royal Mermaid Rescue Crew like all the others in her class. In order to join the Royal Mermaid Rescue Crew she has got to choose a seapony that she’d like to have as her partner at the upcoming ceremony.

Nixie isn’t sure who she wants for her seapony. What she does know is who she is sure she doesn’t want as her partner. When the ceremony takes place she ends up being the last to show more choose, and with the seapony that she didn’t want to be partnered with. She tries to be the better persona and tries to make the best out of it, but Rip makes it really hard for her.

I really liked this book. It was a fast read and it helps to show children that it is possible to find friendship and some of the most unlikely individuals. It also shows children that it is a good idea to try and get to know someone before completely making your mind up about them, because in the end they might just surprise you!

I recommend this book for any child that enjoys reading about mermaids and seaponys. It’s a bonus if they enjoy reading about princesses as well, since Nixie is a mermaid princess. show less

{My thoughts} – Princess Lana is struggling with accepting herself for who she is. She questions and second guesses herself on a regular basis when it comes to speaking out. She doesn’t like to rush into things, instead she’d rather pause and figure out the correct solution to things first. She seems to be having problems making sense of everything happening around her. Everything that seems to come so easy to those around her, doesn’t come so easy for her.

Princess Lana meets another show more animal that is struggling with accepting who they are as well. The two of them quickly bond and Princess Lana decides it is her duty to help him. She makes some choices that are in the best interest of helping her new friend and in the process finds a way to find her own voice. This was the one thing that she’d been struggling with so much and now, she is finding ways to make it known.

I recommend this book for I recommend this book for any child that enjoys reading about mermaids and seaponys. It’s a bonus if they enjoy reading about princesses as well, since Nixie is a mermaid princess. This book also has the potential to help show children that even though they are different or do things differently that it’s okay. It shows them that they don’t always have to be just like everyone else, and that everyone else may have different ways of doing things. The differences between everyone is what makes them so great! show less