Upside Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins

Summary from Goodreads:

From New York Times bestselling authors Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins comes the hilarious and heartfelt story of a group of magical misfits.

Nory Horace is nine years old. She's resourceful, she's brave, she likes peanut butter cookies. Also, she's able to transform into many different animals. Unfortunately, Nory's shape-shifting talent is a bit wonky. And when she flunks out of her own father's magic academy, Nory's forced to enter public school, where she meets a group of kids whose magic is, well, different.

This new, offbeat series from hit authors Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins chronicles the misadventures of Nory and her oddball friends, who prove that upside-down magic definitely beats right side up.

Review:

I picked this book up at a book swap of sorts on a vacation I took to upstate New York with my friends from library school. Though, I’m not going to lie; a big appeal for me was the main character’s name: Nory. It’s spelled wrong, but still. It’s not every day that I read from the point of view of another Nory.

This book was cute. It’s definitely a middle grade book that I know I would have loved a lot more if I were a kid. I can see a lot of kids loving this book. The writing style was not my favorite. It felt a little too easy, like maybe the authors were trying too hard to sound young.  I liked Nory a lot, and it was easy to relate to her. I think every kid at some point wishes they were normal.

On the other hand, I was also a little annoyed with her because she had such power and magic, and I was mad jealous. Instead of focusing on not being normal, she should have been focusing on how awesome she was. I like that her new school and teacher were helping her come to terms with her awesomeness. But, I still kept wanting to shake some sense into her. I was also not a huge fan of her friend, Elliot. He put way too much faith and attention in the wrong people. And he should have forgiven Nory way sooner.

I loved Nory’s aunt and her love of pizza. I loved the magic system to this world. And I loved getting to know all the characters in Nory’s new classroom.

I wanted more story though. I kept waiting for something bigger to happen. And while the almost-catastrophe at the end of the story was a pretty big deal, I wanted something more. The whole book kind of felt like the opening to a bigger book that I didn’t get yet. Not a lot happened in it, besides some bullying and some learning to love yourself moments. I’m not sure I’ll continue with the series. I know I’d have read them all as a kid. I give this a 7/10.