Bella Broomstick: School Spells

Lou Kuenzler's Bella Broomstick School Spells is a funny, fizzy magic story for 6 year olds about a young witch's very first day at a Person school.

What happens

Bella used to live with her mean Aunt Hemlock in the Magic Realm. Now she lives in the Person World with Aunty Rose and Uncle Martin, who are fostering her and couldn't be kinder. They have no idea she's a witch. Nobody does, and nobody's supposed to.

Her wand is disguised as a fluffy pink flamingo pen. She can talk to animals (Goldfish Gulp is quite easy, apparently). All she really wants is to be normal and make a friend.

On day one she meets Esme, a girl in a sparkly gold top hat who wants to be a magician. She also meets Piers Seymour, the nasty boy next door, who calls her Bella Broomthick.

When Esme's rabbit-in-a-hat trick flops and Piers laughs at her, Bella's wand starts to twitch. What harm could one teeny-tiny spell do?

Quite a lot, as it turns out! A small, cute, VERY fat rabbit pops out of the hat and bites Piers on the nose. And then Bella does her times tables in maths with bunnies on her mind...

Bella's own voice is lovely company. She says "Tumbling terrapins!" and "Whispering weasels!" when things go wrong, which is often. Her take on Person things like school sprouts and "telly-vision" is very funny too.

There's real heart in it as well. Bella is desperate to fit in, and Esme is the first friend who likes her for exactly who she is. Your reader will be cheering them both on.

The bullying stays at playground level. Piers teases, snatches and makes threats, and Bella and her friends stand up to him.

Newly independent readers will get on well with the short chapters and all the chatty dialogue. It would make a fun bedtime read-aloud too.

What to read next

If they want to know how Bella ended up in the Person World in the first place, try the first Bella Broomstick book. It starts on the morning of her third go at the entrance exam for Creepy Castle School for Witches and Wizards.