Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater

Summary (from Goodreads):

From bestselling authors Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce comes an exciting new series full of magical creatures, whimsical adventures, and quirky illustrations.

Pip is a girl who can talk to magical creatures. Her aunt is a vet for magical creatures. And her new friend Tomas is allergic to most magical creatures. When things go amok—and they often go amok—Pip consults Jeffrey Higgleston’s Guide to Magical Creatures, a reference work that Pip finds herself constantly amending. Because dealing with magical creatures like unicorns, griffins, and fuzzles doesn’t just require book knowledge—it requires hands-on experience and thinking on your feet. For example, when fuzzles (which have an awful habit of bursting into flame when they’re agitated) invade your town, it’s not enough to know what the fuzzles are—Pip and Tomas also must trace the fuzzles’ agitation to its source, and in doing so, save the whole town.

Review:

Maggie Stiefvater has proven herself to be a trump author for me. I’ll read anything she writes and I’ll mostly likely read it before all the other books in my TBR shelf. I haven’t read books by Jackson Pearce before, though I’ve heard great things. I was excited to see what this duo would do in a middle grade book.

I was not disappointed. This book was adorable! Everything from the illustrations to the weirdly interesting characters was just so much fun. I was expecting more of a fantasy novel and I got more of a contemporary book mixed with fantastical creatures. The mixture provided fantastic humor. This middle grade book had me laughing out loud, sometimes in public. I wasn’t expecting it to be so funny.

I loved Pip. She’s so curious and ready to learn as much as she can. She’s strong and brave too, even though no one takes her seriously. It was weird reading a book that takes place in a world where things like unicorns and griffins are normal, but a girl who can talk to them is not. Most people found Pip to be crazy or childish. And she was a little bit, but she was so smart too. I loved that she learned that not all animals can be classified the same. There are different characteristics about each magical creature she meets.

I loved her friend with all the allergies. He reminded me of the little boy in the movie, My Girl. And I even loved her kind of bratty cousin that complained all the time. I found her to be a very realistic element to the whole story.

The story was good. The characters were great. The humor was fantastic. I just wish there was a little bit more. I wanted a tiny bit more to the resolution. Though, I liked that okay. I wanted to see more of the results of the problem. I know I’m being vague. I just don’t want to give anything away. All in all though, this was great. I give it a 9/10.