Polly Diamond and the Super Stunning Spectacular School Fair

Volume XXV / Issue 31 - April 19 / 2019

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Polly Diamond and the Super Stunning Spectacular School Fair

Author:

Alice Kuipers

Illustrated by:

Diana Toledano

San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books (Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books), May, 2019

107 pp., hardcover, $20.99

ISBN:

9781452152332

Grades:

Grades 2-4

Ages:

Ages 7-9

Review by:

Karen Rankin (Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy)

Excerpt:

Three Reasons Today Will Be Spectacular
1. Spectacular is my Word of the Day. My dad got me a word calendar so I'd remember the date. Instead I remember the new words. I love words. Especially words like spectacular because it has four syllables. My name, Polly Diamond, also has four syllables. My teacher, Ms. Hairball, told us that a syllable is a beat in a word. She beat her hands on her knees. Pol-ly Dia-mond.
2. Spectacular means a large, fantastic display. Which is an extra-good word for School Fair day – which is today! The school fair is all about books. And I love books.
3. Also, I have a super-spectacular book. A magic book. Everything I write in my book comes true. I know! Spectacular!

My magic book is sitting next to my breakfast muffin. It – my book, not my muffin – has a turquoise cover. Turquoise is my favourite color. My glasses are turquoise, my sneakers are turquoise, my T-shirt today is turquoise. Turquoise is a hard word to spell. But I am an excellent speller. I can spell turquoise! I love spelling so much that I named my magic book Spell. Spell means THREE things!

1. A moment in time.
2. To spell a word.
3. And a magicspell.

Perfect! Because Spell IS magic!

I turn to a blank page in my magic book. I write:

Hi, Spell! Today is going to be SPECTACULAR!

A tiny black dot pops onto the page. My book is writing back to me!

Spectacular?

I write: It's school Fair day.

Does everyone have to play fair on school fair day?
No! Silly! Fair also means an exhibition! A celebration! A party! And I want to make it spectacular – with you!

My little sister, Anna, runs into the kitchen and jumps on Dad. "Arrgh," he groans dramatically. He wrestles Anna into his arms.

"Daddy, stop!" Anna shrieks. "My wings!"

She wriggles free and straightens her fairy wings. "I'm a fairy today, Polly," she tells me. She takes a bite of my muffin.

I stick out my tongue at her and take a new muffin from the tin. I eat it quickly. If I wrote Anna is a muffin in Spell, then, POP!, Anna would turn into a muffin! Maybe later.
Anna reaches a sticky hand for Spell.

"Don't touch my book," I say. I turn back to Spell and write: I don't have any ideas for the school fair. But I will soon. Ideas are my specialty.

As per the above excerpt, Polly is looking forward to her school's Book Fair. At school, when she learns that there won't be any popcorn at the fair because the popcorn-making machine is broken, she begins her list of spectacular ideas for the fair. With the help of Spell, her magic spelling book, the Book Fair gets books that pop open with popcorn, clouds of cotton candy, and face painting that is so realistic children turn into the characters they ask to have painted on their faces. For instance, Polly's little sister, Anna, turns into a fairy, one of her classmates turns into a dragon, and her annoying babysitter turns into a squirrel. Polly and Spell also transform the Book Carousel's rides into talking and moving characters from Alice in Wonderland and make magic carpets for Book Odyssey that fly Polly and her friends over the settings of books they've read. But, when the school’s principal announces that it's time to wrap up the fair, Polly realizes she has lost Spell. After some searching and a few tears, Polly "gets her head straight," finds Spell, and – by writing a small passage in her magic book – manages to get everything and everyone back to normal.

In Polly Diamond and the Super Stunning Spectacular School Fair, the second book of the “Polly Diamond” series, Polly loves adjectives, palindromes, puns, and alliteration. The book includes a great list of Polly's favourite books (probably the best bit of information included for aspiring writers), as well as an excellent "Reading Rules" poster Polly made. Following are parts of the poster:

A Book Is Like a Milkshake: If you don't like one flavor, try a different one.

and,

A Book Is Like a Meal: It fills you up. But then later you want another one.

When Polly gets to work with Spell and her imagination, anything can happen, from mud puddles turning into monsters, to her least favourite babysitter ending up stuck in a tree. Polly's character is consistent, credible, and drives the plot. Her interaction with her little sister, Anna – who is simply but convincingly sketched – gives the story some emotional pull. However, her friends Trixie, Luala, and Hannah, are so briefly sketched that they just feel like props for Polly's plans. This reviewer hopes for more emotional engagement in the next Polly Diamond installment.

Recommended

Reviewer:

Karen Rankin is a Toronto, Ontario, teacher and writer of children’s stories.