Review: Fairest of them All - Sarah Mlynowski

Where I got it: Finished copy from publisher
Rating: 3 stars  

Cover Rating: 4 stars (Cute. I really think it's a great fit. The cover artist has more work you can view here.)
Genre: Middle Grade

Publication Date: May 1, 2012

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Page Count: 169 p.

Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads

Abby's parents move her and her brother Jonah to a new town. Here the kids do everything wrong. They call pop soda, they make peanut butter and banana sandwiches wrong, they even play tag wrong. Abby doesn't think she likes it here one bit. She likes it better than the world beyond the mirror though. When her brother is messing around in the basement one night, Abby and Jonah get sucked in through it and plop right down in a fairy tale. Now they have to right the things they've messed up in the tale, and get home before their parents wake up.

This was a really fun fairy tale twist. I'm quite excited to see what happens with the next ones. This story talked about the butterfly effect in essence. If you change one thing, the course of the entire story gets altered. Abby was certainly an interesting character, a good contrast to her over-eager brother. He was always ready for an adventure. Abby was a little annoying at times, but overall not too bad. She was far more annoying before the mirror, so it's lucky she got sucked up right away. She's very bossy though, but of course someone needs to take charge. I appreciated that she kept a relatively level head after what happened, mostly because she was in denial, but still. I liked the dwarves in this story, quite a bit different than Disney had them, but a lot more interesting. I really can't see what happens next with Abby and Jonah. Anyone who loves fairy tale retellings is going to want to check this one out.

First Line:
"Once upon a time my life was normal."

Favorite Lines:
"Coke pops on your tongue. It doesn't soda on your tongue."