The Unfortunate Wishes of Nelly Young
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A girl and her friends find their wishes coming true and their world turned upside down in this absurdly funny middle grade romp that’s Dork Diaries meets The Wish by Gail Carson Levine.
It’s spring break, and twelve-year-old Nelly Young is determined to ditch the embarrassing nickname Breaking News Nelly and become Totally Cool Nelly. She’s not quite sure how, but she’s sure she’ll figure it out…especially when she has her two best friends, Clara and Jas, by her side. Though nothing seems to go right for any of them, at least the three girls have each other.
With nothing to lose, they’re determined to make their own luck and write down their ultimate wishes. But to their surprise, the next morning they find their wishes starting to come true. But how?! They haven’t got a clue, but soon the tides are turning for Nelly, Clara, and Jas, and all it takes is one wish…and then another…and another.
Because when you have the power of unlimited wishes on your side, what could possibly go wrong?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Twelve-year-old Nelly Young hopes to use her weeklong spring break to reinvent herself after an incident makes her the laughingstock of her grade. When her loving yet awkward single father acquires a pair of hand-me-down sneakers for a bargain, Nelly feels like they're a sign that nothing will change, prompting Nelly and her best friends, filmmaker Jas and mad scientist Clara, to attempt a "little manifestation spell" meant to change her luck. To the trio's surprise, it works. The granted wishes Nelly tossed into their makeshift firepit (a battery-operated candle in a bowl) provide the perfect escape for the girls to gain popularity and confidence: Camp Chaos, an adventure program where Nelly believes anything can happen. But the wishes have unforeseen consequences, forcing Nelly to figure out how to reverse the magic before it's too late. Through Nelly's comedic first-person narration, Garrod (the Inflatables series) follows one week in the lives of three theatrical girls who dream big and love hard. Positive messaging about self-acceptance and processing change is somewhat muddled by uneven pacing, but there are plenty of sweet and laugh-out-loud moments to drive this bighearted novel home. Characters are described as having varying skin tones. Ages 8–12.
