Fairy Mom and Me
Page 1
Also by Sophie Kinsella
Finding Audrey
THE SHOPAHOLIC SERIES
Shopaholic to the Stars
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan
Shopaholic Ties the Knot
Shopaholic & Sister
Shopaholic & Baby
Mini Shopaholic
OTHER NOVELS
My Not So Perfect Life
I’ve Got Your Number
Can You Keep a Secret?
The Undomestic Goddess
Remember Me?
Twenties Girl
Wedding Night
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2018 by Sophie Kinsella
Cover art and interior illustrations copyright © 2018 by Marta Kissi
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Visit us on the Web! rhcbooks.com
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 9781524769895 (trade)
ISBN 9781524770655 (lib. bdg.)
Ebook ISBN 9781524769901
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
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Contents
Cover
Also by Sophie Kinsella
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Meet My Fairy Mom and Me
Fairy Spell #1: Fixeridoo!
Fairy Spell #2: Cupcakeridoo!
Fairy Spell #3: Betteridoo!
Fairy Spell #4: Rewinderidoo!
Family Activity Guide
Finderidoo!
For a Little More Magic, Read Fairy Mom and Me #2: Fairy-in-Waiting
About the Author
i 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 nowadays. 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. Everyone says he looks like me, but he doesn’t, because 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!
t began Saturday morning. We were having breakfast and Ollie grabbed the milk jug.
“Careful, Ollie!” Mom said.
There is no point in saying “careful” to Ollie.
“Put it down!” I said. I tried to get the jug, but Ollie wouldn’t give it to me.
“Give me the jug, darling,” Mom said to Ollie. She tried to take it from him, but Ollie hugged it tighter, like a teddy bear. Mom pulled his hands off, Ollie grabbed it again…and suddenly the milk was all over the floor.
“Weezi-weezi-weezi!” Ollie said.
“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Mom remarked.
I think he did know what he was doing.
The milk ran all over the floor, under the chairs and into the corners of the room.
“Never mind,” my dad said. “I’ll pop to the supermarket.”
“That will take too long,” Mom said. “We need more milk right now.”
She stamped her feet three times, clapped her hands, wiggled her behind and said, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She was a fairy.
Every time Mom turns into a fairy, I stare at her in amazement. When Mom is a fairy, she is sparkly all over. She has beautiful shimmery wings, and when they move, they send little breezes around. Even her smile is more sparkly.
Mom took her Computawand out of her bag. As soon as she touched it, it started to glow and grew into a wand.
“Are you sure about this?” my dad asked.
“Of course I’m sure!” Mom said. “You know I’m getting better at magic every day.”
Dad muttered something, but we couldn’t hear him.
“What?” Mom asked.
“Nothing,” Dad said. “Go ahead.”
Mom pressed a code on the screen—bleep-bleep-bloop—then waved it and said, “Milkeridoo!”
In an instant, there was a cow in our kitchen. A great big brown cow with a bell around its neck.
“Oops,” Mom said. “I don’t know how that happened.”
“Do you know how to milk a cow?” Dad asked.
“No!” Mom said. “Of course I don’t!”
“Moo!” the cow said.
It tried to walk around, but there wasn’t room.
So it flicked its tail and knocked all the apples out of the fruit bowl. Then it broke three of Mom’s favorite cups with the pink flowers.
“Stop that!” Mom shouted, and she steered the cow away. Then the cow pooed on the floor.
“For heaven’s sake,” Dad said.
“I’m sorry,” Mom said. “I’ll try again.” She pressed a different code on her Computawand—bleep-bleep-bleep-bloop—and shouted, “Milkeridoo!” for the second time.
The ceiling started to rain on us. It was brown rain and it went everywhere, all over our hair and our breakfast. I licked the rain off my chin.
“It’s chocolate milk!” I said. “It’s raining chocolate milk! Yummy! Can we have this every day?”
“No, we can’t,” Mom said. She looked up, annoyed by the brown rain. “I didn’t want chocolate milk. And I didn’t want a cow. I just want a bottle of milk. Stoperidoo!”
The rain stopped. Then Mom pressed another code and shouted, “Awayeridoo!” and the cow disappeared too.
Dad sighed. He squeezed some chocolate milk out of his hair.
“There’s too much magic in this house,” he said.
“But it should have worked! I don’t understand what’s going wrong,” Mom said. “This Computawand is brand-new. It has an Extra-Fast Magic button.” She pressed the button on her Computawand, and it bleeped. “Should I try again?”
“No!” Dad shouted. “I mean…why not go to the supermarket? We need to buy some other food anyway.”
“But the supermarket is very slow,” Mom said. “And I’m very busy today. I’ve got lots to do.”
“Great haste makes great waste,” Dad said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means if you hurry too much, things will go wrong. Especially if you use magic.”
Dad can’t do magic or fly. He says if you want to fly, why not get on a plane, like normal people?
But Mom isn’t normal people. She’s Fairy Mom.
—
When we got to the supermarket, I saw Tom and Lenka.
“Hey, Lenka!” I called. “Hi, Tom!”
Tom was pushing the shopping cart to the register for his mom. Tom is always doing kind things like that.
There was a lady doing face painting, and Lenka was having hers done like a butterfly, with silver glitter.
“Can I have my face painted like Lenka?” I asked. But Mom shook her head.
“Sorry, Ella, no time. Come on!”
We ran up the cereal aisle and Mom grabbed boxes of cereal. We were going so fast that Ollie laughed and waved his hands, as if he were on a baby theme-park ride.
In the fruit section they were giving out free samples. But Mom said, “Sorry, Ella, no time. Come on!”
We rushed around with our cart like runners in a race. Ollie sat in the front and Mom sang, “Ollie in the cart! Ollie in the cart!”
But when we reached the register, Mom stopped singing. She looked annoyed. There were so many people. They were all standing in lines, with full, full carts. One man had a whole cart of flour!
Tom and his mom were leaving with their bags. Tom saw us and he called, “Good luck! We had to wait forever.”
“Honestly!” Mom said. “Let’s speed things along.”
I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. “Don’t you remember what Dad said?” I asked. “ ‘Great haste makes great waste.’ ”
“Well, I have a lot to do today,” Mom said. “We need to hurry up….”
We went behind a rack of baked beans where no one else was. Very quietly, Mom stamped her feet three times, clapped her hands, wiggled her behind and said, “Marshmallow,”…and POOF! She was a fairy.
Quickly she pressed a code on her Computawand—bleep-bleep-bloop—then pointed it at herself and said, “Invisidoo!” Then no one could see her except me. I can always see Mom when she’s invisible because one day I will be a fairy too.
Mom pressed another code on her Computawand screen—bleep-bleep-bloop—and pointed it at the lady at the checkout. “Speederidoo!” she shouted.
At once, the lady started throwing things quickly into the shopping cart. “There!” Mom said. “That’s a lot better.”
A pineapple landed in the cart—thud! A bag of potato chips landed—crinkle! A chicken landed—crash!
After a minute, Mom said, “Let’s speed things up even more.”
“Isn’t this fast enough?” I asked.
“The faster, the better,” Mom said.
She pointed her Computawand at all the ladies and men in the aisles and pressed the Extra-Fast Magic button. “Speederi-deederi-doo!” she shouted.
All the ladies and men started throwing things into their carts. They went faster and faster and faster.
“Mom,” I said, “I think this is too fast.”
Eggs flew through the air and landed—smish-smash! Bottles of soda crashed down and exploded—fizz-whizz! A chocolate mousse fell on the floor—split-splat-splot!
Food was flying everywhere. The old man in front of me got a block of stinky cheese on his head. One lady got broccoli stuck in her ears. Ollie was covered in baked beans, and he laughed and laughed. A tub of ice cream landed—splat!—and someone’s dog ran in super-fast and started licking it off the floor until a worker chased it out.
Then the lady at the register started throwing the bags of flour into the cart. Boom! Boom! Boom! They all burst open. Everything was covered in a big white powdery cloud. Everyone looked like snowmen.
I wanted to laugh, but I was worried. All the people were running around and screaming. Mom looked worried too.
“What do you think, Ella?” she asked. “What should I do?”
“Use the Fixeridoo spell,” I said.
I had learned about the Fixeridoo spell from watching Mom’s magic lessons with Fenella on Fairy Tube. The Fixeridoo spell is the spell you use when things have gone really, really wrong. But it’s so powerful that the Fairy Rule Book says you can only use it once a week.
“Do you remember it?” I asked Mom.
“Of course I do!” Mom said. She pressed a code on her Computawand—bleep-bleep-bloop—and waved it.
“Fixeridoo!” she shouted. But nothing happened. “Fixeridoo!” Mom shouted again. “FIXERIDOO!”
Food was still flying around in the air. A muffin hit me on the head. “Ow!” I shouted.
“Ella, I can’t fix it.” Mom looked really alarmed now. “Help!”
“The Fixeridoo spell is easy-peasy!” I said.
I wondered if Mom was using the right magic spell code. She finds it hard to remember them all. She says her head is too full of other things she can’t forget, like how to raise a family and hold down a job.
“What numbers are you pressing on the Computawand?” I called.
“Four-five-nine,” Mom said. She looked flustered. “Isn’t that right?”
“No, that’s wrong! It’s four-nine-nine!” I called. “Press four-nine-nine!”
“Oh!” Mom cried. “Now I remember.” She pressed the code—bleep-bleep-bloop—and said, “Fixeridoo! Please? Please?”
This time it worked. Everyone slowed back down to normal speed. The gooey eggs flew through the air, back into their shells. The chocolate syrup slurped back into its container. The baked beans marched back into their cans, one by one.
“Well done, Mom,” I said. “You did it!”
“No, Ella,” Mom said. “You did it. You’re going to be a fantastic fairy when you grow up.”
And she looked so proud I felt a little glow of happiness.
The people weren’t fixed yet. Some were shouting and some were crying. One lady was lying on the floor, yelling, “Help! Help! The eggs are alive!”
“Time for some Fairy Dust,” Mom said.
Mom keeps her Fairy Dust in her purse in a secret pocket. She took out a handful and sprinkled it, all silvery-shiny, over everyone.
Fairy Dust is very clever. It makes you forget all the magic you’ve seen. For ten seconds
, all the people in the supermarket were very still. They had sort of gone to sleep. Then…
“Go!” Mom said, and they all woke up.
The supermarket was calm again. Everyone was smiling. And our shopping cart was at the front of the line.
Mom quickly stepped behind the magazine stand. I knew she was going to become visible again.
“Where’s your mom?” the lady at the register asked. “You’re not alone, are you, little girl?”
“Oh,” I said. “Of course not. My mom is…um…well…she’s…”
“Here!” said Mom, appearing beside me. She wasn’t a fairy anymore. Her shimmery wings had gone. She was just Mom, and she winked at me. “Oh no, what is Ollie doing?”
Ollie had his thumb in his nose. He pulled out a baked bean and smiled and said, “Weezi-weezi-weezi!” And then he ate it.
—
On the way out, we passed a cafe. The sign said SPECIAL: BLUEBERRY MUFFINS—TODAY ONLY.
I love blueberry muffins. “Mom, can we stop and have a blueberry muffin?” I asked.
Mom opened her mouth, and I knew she was going to say “Sorry, Ella, no time. Come on!”
But she closed her mouth. She thought for a moment. And then she said, “Let’s sit down and have a blueberry muffin. You deserve a reward for helping me out.”
After we got our muffins, we sat at a table. That was when I saw my best friend Lenka and her mom walk in. Lenka said, “Look, Ella! I’m a butterfly!”
“Oh…really?” I hesitated. “Did you see anything else in the supermarket? Anything strange?”
“Strange?” Lenka asked. “No, there was nothing strange.” And she went to sit with her mom with a confused look on her face.