Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
“Fellow fairies,” said Oona Bramblegoop,standing as tall as her six inches could make her, “joining the fairy council has been a dream come true. So when the head of the council asked me to revise the Fairy Binder, well, that was a dream cometruer. Today, I bring you twelve additional rules. The first is . . . The first is . . .” Her mind went blank. Crudmuffin.
She shuffled through her note cards and dropped them all over the floor. Double crudmuffin.
Oona should have this whole speech memorized by now. As the newest member of the council, she needed to be extra fairytastic. She needed to prove she belonged.
Luckily, she was still at home, practicing in front of the mirror. Oona picked up a bowl of cotton candy casserole and took a couple of bites. Cotton candy casserole—or Triple C, as she liked to call it—always helped her focus. Then she sorted through each card until she found the rule she needed. She cleared her throat and started again. “The first rule is—”
Just then, a kaleidoscope of butterflies flew in through her window, each carrying a ribbon. At the other end of all the ribbons was a package wrapped in rainbow tissue paper. A present!
The butterflies dropped the package in Oona’s hands and hovered near the ceiling. Oona guessed that they wanted to know what was inside almost as badly as she did. They were social butterflies after all, and they were excited to go tell the other fairies what gift Oona Bramblegoop, Underwear Fairy, had received.
She tore off the paper. There was a box covered in sparkly jewels. Who could this be from? It was her quarter birthday next week. Maybe her little cousin Horace had sent her something?
She lifted the lid and gasped. Inside was a fairy council ID card, laminated and everything, with Oona’s picture and her name written in sparkly script across the top.
FUN BUTTERFLY FACT: Social butterflies spread the news and gossip of more than just fairies. They also share info on elves, mermaids, unicorns, and even slugs and frogs. However, they avoid sharing leprechaun news because leprechauns are such pranksters. When one leprechaun reported that his sister “had tooted so much, her butt fell off,” the butterflies pretty much stopped listening to them altogether.
“Woo-hoo! Hot snickerdoodledogs!” Oona shouted, spinning around with the card heldhigh over her head. This was it! It was official. The butterflies swirled around her and went out the window.
She knew that every fairy in Blackberry Bog would know about her special card quicker than she could say pixie kicks, and that was fairy fine with her.
Before today, Oona had thought that the best day of her life was when she met Lucy, the one and only Tooth Fairy. Oona had always been in awe of Lucy. Plus, once Lucy learned about Oona’s talent for providing protective underwear that kept the wearer from falling down with AUTO WEDGIE power, she had helped Oona be named the official Underwear Fairy. They had worked as a team from then on. They had become best friends!
But lately, Lucy had been too busy to be besties. Oona wasn’t sure what she was busy with, but whatever it was, they weren’t working on it as a team.
Oona’s face got hot with the thought of another day feeling left out. She pressed the ID card against her cheek. It felt cool and smooth and wonderful.
Oona had an important meeting with the fairy council. She would be busy, too.
Turning back to the mirror, Oona tucked the card in her pocket and then pretended she was talking to an imaginary fairy. “You’re all out of glitterberry muffins? What a shame. You don’t have any left at all? Not even for a member of the”—card flash—“fairy council? Oh, you’ve found one for me? How lucky.”
Ooh, she loved this ID card.
And she loved making up new rules. One of the best parts was it didn’t even need magic.
Magic was tricky for Oona. Her magic always came out sort of sideways. At her first fairy council brunch, Oona had magicked up napkins. The spell seemed simple enough, but when all the members unfolded their napkins to eat, she was horrified. The napkins were shaped like underwear! Seeing Molly, the head of the fairy council, with a pair of underwear tucked under her chin made Oona want to crawl into a mole hole. She was relieved when Molly laughed it off, but she definitely didn’t feel like she belonged that day.
But then Molly had decided that adding rules to the Fairy Binder was an important part of the preparations for Blackberry Bog’s yearly Unicorn Reunion, and that Oona should do the job. Oona couldn’t believe her luck. She had always been full of ideas, and now ideas were all she needed to please Molly.
Plus, Molly seemed to love each rule Oona made up more than the last. She was becoming Molly’s right-hand fairy!
Uh-oh. Oona had been so caught up in her thoughts, she’d lost track of the time. The fairy councilmeeting had already started!
CHAPTER TWO
Oona grabbed her note cards and her wand. Then she flitted out the door and skimmed down the spiral staircase leading from her fairy nest to the ground.
Halfway down, she had to jump over a slug sunning itself on the steps. Two more slugs slid along the handrail. And near the bottom of her stairs, there was a whole slew of slugs! That could only mean one thing—her little cousin Horace must be close by. He had replaced her as Slug Fairy after all.
“Horace? Horace!” she called, checking behind the tree trunk.
“Coming!” a clump of bushes called back in Horace’s voice. She parted the leaves and there he was, hip-deep in brambles.
“What are you doing in there?” asked Oona.
“Taking a shortcut?” Horace shrugged.
“I see. Are you stuck?”
“Not me. It’s this big old thing!” Horace was tugging a wagon behind him, and it had gotten wedged in between two extra-bushy branches.
“Well, I’m in a hurry, but I have time for one spell.” Oona raised her wand to help him out.
“I really just need a hand—” Horace blurted, but Oona was already saying magic words.
“Hickory dickory duck,
You’ve gotten something stuck,
But if those branches sway,
They’ll get out of the way!”
Suddenly, Oona was almost knocked over by a line of ducks pulling a cannon. They all climbed into the cannon but one, who struck a match and lit the cannon’s fuse.
“Uh-oh,” said Oona, plugging her ears. Sideways magic was often needlessly noisy. Yes, she had mentioned a duck, but why the cannon? Argh. Horace covered his eyes.
The fuse burned down, and BOOM, ducks rocketed by Horace on both sides, flattening down all the tangling sticks and leaves as they zoomed past.
“Am I dead?” Horace asked, his eyes still covered.
“Not a scratch,” said Oona. A messy spell, for sure, but it worked.
“Thanks, Oo,” he said. He dropped his hands, grinned, and started to pull the wagon again.
“What’s in there, anyway?” she asked. “I hope it’s not slugs—they’ll be completely terrified!”
“Nope.” He reached into the wagon and, after pulling out a stray duck, he showed her a giant book. “It’s the new Fairy Binder. I just got my copy.”
Horace loved reading the Fairy Binder and memorizing all the rules. It was his hobby.
“Wow, I didn’t realize it had gotten quiteso big,” Oona said.
“It’s over a thousand pages,” Horace said, rubbing his neck.
“Well, we have been adding things to get ready for the reunion. More fun for you, though, right, Horace? Lots of cool new rules to memorize.”
Horace shook his head. It suddenly seemed like he didn’t think the binder was as fun as he used to. “Actually, Oo, I wanted to ask you about some of these new ones.”
Oona decided this was an ID-card-flashing opportunity. “Oona Bramblegoop, fairy council member, happy to help!” She presented Horace with the card. She even did a little salute.
She thought Horace would giggle, but he didn’t. He just handed the card back to her.
Then Horace heaved the big binder open toward the back and flipped a few pages.“Here. Rule Number 1,001: No magic allowed in the tying of shoes?”
Oona had thought up that one last week. Molly had loved it so much, she’d given Oona a sparkle sticker.
“It’s just common sense, Horace. If a fairy is old enough to have their magic, they’re definitely old enough to be able to tie their own shoes,” Oona said.
“I guess so,” Horace replied, biting his lip. “But even I sometimes forget what comes after making the laces into bunny ears. A little magic just helps at the end, you know?”
FUN FAIRY FACT: Stickers work differently in the fairy world. Instead of sticking it onto something, fairies can hang a sticker in midair. They just take the backing off and place the sticker in any open space. It’s great for decorating disco dances.
“We want the unicorns to be impressed when they visit,” Oona told him, repeating what Molly had been saying for weeks. Then she added, “So every fairy must put their best foot forward . . . with shoes they tied themselves.”
Horace thumbed through the pages again. “Rule Number 1,126? All fairies must wear stripes on Snorgleday? That’s just weird.”
Oona huffed. “Not weird. Fun. Do you not like fun all of a sudden?”
FUN FAIRY FACT: Snorgleday is the eighth day of the fairy week. It comes after Sunday and before Monday, so fairies always have a three-day weekend! Fairies like to spend this day either snoring or snuggling, or preferably, both.
"Well, okay, but what about this one?” he said, pointing at the top of the page. It said: Rule #1,225: The first two rows of the Grand Fairy Theater are reserved for fairy council members only. “Why do we need that?”
“If you don’t like that one, maybe I can improve it. I can try to get Molly to change it to ‘fairy council members plus guests.’ Then you can sit with me!”
“That’s not it, Oo. It’s that . . . Well, it doesn’t seem fair.”
Oona didn’t like all of these questions. She was just doing what the head of the council had asked her to do! To help all of fairydom! Why did silly old Horace always have to read every last word of the Fairy Binder, anyway?
“The reasons for some of these rules are on a need-to-know basis,” she said finally. “And you definitely don’t need to know.”
“But—”
“I’ve got to get to work.” She flapped her wings and rose off the ground.
“Think about it!” called Horace after her.
But Oona wasn’t going to think about it. Shehad big responsibilities to get to that were too important for Horace to understand.
She headed toward the fairy council meeting place, which was high up on a cliff. Well, technically it was on a group of little clouds next to a high cliff. The last leg of the journey there was up a magical escalator made entirely out of wildflowers.
But when she got there, it was so crowded with scolding frogs, she couldn’t even see the bottom of the escalator. This was going to make her late for sure.
What in fairydom was going on?
