Hi there. My name is Ella Brook, and I live in a town called Cherrywood. I have blue eyes and dark brown hair. My best friends at school are Tom and Lenka. My worst enemy is Zoe. She lives next door and she’s my Not-Best Friend. She looks mean even when she smiles. You’ll meet them all later.
And this is my mom. She looks normal, like any other mom . . . but she’s not.
Because she can turn into a fairy.
All she has to do is shut her eyes tight, say “Marshmallow,” . . . and POOF! She’s Fairy Mom.
I love it when she’s a fairy, because her wings shimmer like hundreds of rainbows. She wears a silver crown that shines like starlight. She can fly in the air and turn invisible and do all other kinds of real magic. Plus, she just bought a new wand that is really cool. It’s called the Computawand V5. It has magic powers and a computer screen
and an Extra-Fast Magic button.
Most fairies have Computawands nowa-days. They have Fairy Apps and Fairy Mail and even Fairy Games. Mom sometimes lets me look at the apps and games if I’ve been good. (But she
always turns off the magic function first.)
When Mom is not being a fairy, her Computawand just looks like a normal phone. Which is good, because it is a big secret that Mom is a fairy. No one must
ever find out. I’m not allowed to tell anyone, not even my friends.
Most of the time, Mom is a boss in an office. She is very good at it. She’s also very good at telling bedtime stories and singing songs in the car. She’s the best mom in the world.
Ollie is my little brother. He’s only one year old and he can’t turn into a fairy. Every- one says he looks like me, but he doesn’t, be- cause he’s a baby and I’m not. He can’t even speak properly. His favorite word is “weezi-weezi-weezi.”
And here’s my dad. He can’t turn into a fairy either and he can’t do magic. He says he can park the car instead.
Mom knows I’d like to be a fairy. She says that all the girls in my family turn into fairies when they’re grown up, so one day I will too. I will have sparkly wings and my own Computawand. I can’t
wait. Aunty Jo and Granny look normal, just like Mom, but they can turn into fairies too. Aunty Jo has a Computawand V5 just like Mom’s. She can work the computer screen very fast, and she knows every single spell code. Aunty Jo is very good at magic.
Granny won’t get a Computawand because she doesn’t like anything that goes
bleep. She still has an old-fashioned fairy wand with a star on top. She says it’s never let her down yet, and she won Best Spell at the Fairy Awards with it, three times in a row.
Aunty Jo won Best Spell last year too. In fact, Aunty Jo has won lots of fairy prizes.
Mom hasn’t won any fairy prizes.
I’m not allowed to start magic lessons yet, but I’m trying to learn anyway. Every week, Mom has magic lessons from Fenella, her Fairy Teacher, who talks to her on Fairy Tube. I watch with her and try my hardest to remember all the spell codes.
Mom tries very hard too. I’m sure she’ll get better one day, but for now she’s not very good at magic. You’ll find out what I mean soon.
Here are some of the magic spells we have had fun with so far—and some of the trouble they’ve gotten us into!
Copyright © 2018 by Sophie Kinsella; illustrated by Marta Kissi. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
