Enchanted Files 1 – Diary of a Mad Brownie

Bruce Coville's Diary of a Mad Brownie is a funny fantasy for 8 year olds about a very tidy brownie who gets sent to live with a very messy girl.

What happens

Angus Cairns is nearly a foot tall, a hundred and fifty years old and fiercely proud of being a brownie. He keeps houses spotless in secret (with a little mischief on the side, as the brownie oath requires). For decades he's looked after old Sarah in a Highland village.

But an ancient curse ties Angus to Sarah's family. When she dies, he has to go to the youngest girl in line. That turns out to be her great-great-great-niece Alex, who lives across the ocean in America.

Getting there is an adventure in itself. His attempt to post himself in a parcel ends badly (packing tape and curly hair don't mix). He rides a giant toad in exchange for three stories and a poem. He tricks a selkie into carrying him across the sea, then spends the whole trip seasick on top of her head while mermaids sing rude songs about him!

And when he finally arrives? There's a huge orange cat, and a flap in the back door that Angus names "Satan's Flap".

Then there's Alex's bedroom. It's a disaster. Angus makes a list of what's in it, right down to three dead flies floating in some orange juice. So he spends the day cleaning, and Alex comes home from school and phones the police to report a creeper!

The format is a real treat. It's Angus's diary mixed up with Alex's school journal, emails, stern notes from her teacher about her desk and entries from a magical encyclopedia. Your reader gets both sides of the story and can see exactly how wrong each of them is about the other.

Angus's voice is the star. He's Scottish ("I canna"), grumpy, quick to throw a fit and secretly very soft. Alex is loud and fun and absolutely does not want her room tidied. Who would you side with?

The book opens with the old lady's death, but it's handled gently. It's a sad goodbye between old friends rather than anything frightening. There's the odd cheeky word too, "arses" included.

What to read next

If they want more from the Enchanted Realm, Hatched, the second Enchanted Files book, is told the same way, with a nervous young griffin called Gerald writing poems in his diary and a human boy's journal running alongside.