Twinkle

In this pink confection (real sparkles embellish the cover and final page), the wide-eyed, gossamer-winged Twinkle is in her first days at the Fairy School of Magic and Music. She’s joined by fetchingly named pals (Buttercup, Izzybell), and they’ve all been issued wands and notebooks. But Twinkle struggles with the spells coursework, and when she practices at night—in defiance of her patient teacher, Miss Flutterbee—the misbegotten enchantments create a banging, clanging “rumpus” in her fairy pod that wakes up all the forest animals. Instead of scolding, Miss Flutterbee offers Twinkle a fairy hack for mastering abracadabras: singing spells instead of chanting them. Bubbly prose and a cute heroine whose determination wavers only a teeny, relatable bit makes this a story certain to flutter the hearts of Holabird’s Angelina Ballerina fans. Zephyrlike watercolor and ink drawings by Warburton (Daddy Lion’s Tea Party) add just the right glints of fairy slapstick and mischievous humor—was there ever anything so adorable as a peeved hedgehog? Ages 3–7. [em](Jan.) [/em]