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Enter to win a copy of Evil Fairies Love Hair, by Mary G. Thompson. Giveaway begins August 13, 2014, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends September 12, 2014, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

Evil Fairies Love Hair is Mary G. Thompson's third novel. She was a practicing attorney for more than seven years, before she moved to New York to write.

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Evil Fairies Love Hair

by Mary G. Thompson

Clarion Books       8/5/2014

978-0-547-85903-3

Age 8 to 12       320 pages

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“You could be gorgeous, brilliant, a star athlete, or great singer, or you could put a hex on your worst enemy. And all you have to do is raise a flock of two-inch-tall fairies. Easy, right? Wrong. Ali learns this the hard way when her flock-starter fairies get to work. Raising them means feeding them, and what they eat is hair. Lots and lots of human hair. Where to get the hair is Ali’s first challenge. What about the beauty salon? Easy, right? Before long, Ali’s friends, classmates, teachers, sister, and parents are entangled with the evil fairies, who have their own grandiose and sinister agenda. It’s up to Ali to overcome these magical troublemakers and set things right.”

Opening

“AGREEMENT 1. Alison E. B. Butler in exchange for one wish, hereby agree: . . .”

The Story

Alison is raising a flock of evil fairies in exchange for one wish. She wants to be smarter than her sister, who get s straight A’s and her parent’s attention. She has two problems right away. Michael gave her the two flock-starters and now he insists on checking up on her, constantly. It wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t the second worst jerk in town. His brother is number one and dating Ali’s sister Hannah—the one who can do no wrong. Second problem, the baby fairies. All the babies want is to eat and they eat human hair, lots if it. Where is Ali going to get all that hair? She can’t use her own, and keeps her hair in a high bun to ensure the fairies don’t get to her hair. The boys shave their head.

Ali spots the beauty salon across from the middle school. They throw hair away every day. Ali tries to grab some of the discarded hair, but Mrs. Hopper, who has cut the Butler family’s hair since forever, catches her. Ali learns that Mrs. Hopper is not who she seems to be and wants to rescue Mrs. Hopper—the real Mrs. Hopper. Hopper is not the only one held captive. Molly and Tyler, who broke the rules while raising their flocks, are now suffering the penalty, and Mrs. Hopper—the fake one—is now holding them captive. Will Ali be able to free all three? Can she be able to get anyone else to help? Most importantly, will Ali raise her full flock and get her wish?

Review

I love Evil Fairies Love Hair. It has some normal teenage angst, a normal family, middle school casts, two flockstarters who may or may not help, and a good dash of magic. The good kids are not always as good as they seem and the bad kids are not as bad as everyone, including parents, believe. Then there are the little evil fairies, who may not be fairies at all. Evil Fairies Love Hair could be a confusing story, but events happen in good time and everything flows nicely from one plot point to the next. In fact, I had read half the book before I thought to check the time. I didn’t want to put the book down.

From the title, Evil Fairies Love Hair, I had no idea what to expect. The fairy on the cover is odd looking with large, bulging eyes that fill up half her face and a baldhead. She looks demanding and she and her fellow fairies are a demanding bunch. Their leader put the fairies in this position and was now trying to get them to where she wanted to be in the first place. Problem is, she easily makes mistakes, mainly due to her enormous ego. I love the humor and the middle school principal who never has a clue what his students are doing. He just wants them back to class. All the adults are clueless.

Middle grade kids will love this story. It will have them thinking about what they would wish for, if they had the opportunity. Kids will also wonder what getting their wish would cause to those around them. Would it be worth it to have everything you want? This is the author’s sophomore novel. (Escape from the Pipe Men! is her debut and will be reviewed here soon.) The writing is excellent. The story pulls you in and keeps you turning the pages. Kids looking for a magical tale with a few twists and turns will want to read Evil Fairies Love Hair. You may think you know what a fairy is and what a fairy does, but do you really? To find out, you need to read Evil Fairies Love Hair. Be careful what you wish for—you might just get it!.

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EVIL FAIRIES LOVE HAIR. Text copyright © 2014 by Mary G. Thompson. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Blake Henry. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, Boston MA.

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Learn about Evil Fairies Love Hair HERE.

Buy Evil Fairies Love Hair at Amazon—B&N—Clarion Books—your local bookstore.

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Meet author Mary G. Thompson at her website:  http://www.marygthompson.com/

Find more intriguing books at the Clarion Books website:  http://www.hmhco.com/

Clarion Books is an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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Also by Mary G Thompson

Escape from the Pipe Men!

Wuftoom

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NEW from Clarion Books

The Twin Powers

The Perfect Place

Author Showcase

By Mary G Thompson, for The Children’s Book Review
Published: June 23, 2012

Mary G. Thompson

My first novel, Wuftoom, is about a boy who, at the start of the book, is aware of something nobody else knows: He is not sick with an unknown disease; he is transforming into a monster. The monster visits him at night and waits for Evan to fully transform, telling Evan that life will be better once he joins them. Of course, the Wuftoom don’t believe they’re monsters, and they don’t see themselves as ugly and disgusting the way Evan does. Once you are a monster, the whole meaning of the word changes.

What does the word monster mean? My Oxford American Dictionary defines “monster” as “an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.” But how do you create something ugly and frightening? Here’s my take on how to do it:

1. Start with something everybody thinks is gross, like a worm.
2. Make it waaaay bigger than a normal worm.
3. Give it a face, but don’t give it a face just like a human’s, with ordinary eyes, nose, mouth, and teeth. Make the eyes different, take the nose away, change the shape of the mouth (I picked a shriveled hole), add fangs.
4. Give it a distinctive voice: a rasp, a tone, a chortle. And finally,
5. Give it a (disgusting) smell.

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Now think long and hard about this monster. Draw it. Give it a name. Put yourself in its shoes. If you looked like that monster, what would be a monster to you? If you had a body like a worm’s, maybe it would be weird to see people walking around with knees and elbows and stiff bones. If you had fangs, maybe it would be strange to see people with short, dull, stunted teeth. If your voice was raspy, maybe it would be scary to hear someone talking in a sharp, clear, high voice.

Now think about what you would do if you saw this disgusting giant worm-like monster. Would you scream? Would you cry? Would you beat it with a stick? Would you call it mean names and tell it to go away? Well, now you know why monsters always seem so distrustful of people. Not that they don’t have their bad sides. All I’m saying is, monsters have their own perspectives. And if you were turning into one, you’d have to learn that sooner or later. You might even begin to appreciate the “monster” you have become.

For more information, visit: http://www.marygthompson.com/

The Author Showcase is a place for authors and illustrators to gain visibility for their works. This article was provided by the author. Learn more …

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