Wands Away: Learning to Fly

Ramona Spellstar is about to head off for her first day at Wands Away School of Magic. Although excited, she is a little nervous; however, she soon makes friends and has fun in the forest, learning how to fly. Wands Away! Learning to Fly is a delightful story, perfect for newly independent readers, tackling longer reads or for a special shared read.

Ramona’s nerves at starting somewhere new offer a great opportunity for discussing and sharing these feelings. As she talks things through with her mum, Ramona realises that these feelings are quite normal and that they should not stop her from looking forward to the new experiences and surprises that are waiting for her. Sharing a hot chocolate along with her worries also helps! There are no mean children, no cliques and no wicked teachers for Ramona to contend with, making her time at school exciting, enjoyable and safe, reassuring little ones that their school experiences can be positive. Ramona quickly makes friends and has great fun exploring the wonders of nature, discovering its secrets.

Seeing the fun that Ramona, Cleo and Enrique have mapping their way through the forest is sure to inspire children to get out into nature themselves and perhaps create fun maps of their own, naming local features and locations in their own 'magical' way! The illustrations are colourful, fun and appealing, adding much to the story.

Although Ramona and her friends are the focus, there are some pages showing all the children in the class with speech bubbles showing what they are thinking, allowing children to develop an interest in the whole class who might, perhaps, feature more in stories to come!

128 pages / Reviewed by Sue Wilsher, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+

Wands Away! is a new illustrated chapter-book series for emerging readers focusing on the life of young witch, Ramona Spellstar. This first title, Learning to Fly, is about her starting at Wands Away School of Magic where she makes new friends, explores the forest school, is assigned her broomstick and learns to fly.

Wands Away: Learning to Fly is a gentle, cosy story which, unlike the plethora of similar contemporary magical student series like Bronte Tempestra, Mirabelle, Mermaid Academy or Unicorn Academy, doesn't have tension or conflict, bullies or scary teachers, villains or evil creatures, quest or adventure. The only enduring issue that Ramona deals with is that, when paired with her broomstick, she hurts its feelings and so it misbehaves for her but this is quickly resolved with a little lesson about not judging things by appearance and being aware of how your comments might affect others.

The illustrations, created by the author, are sweet and atmospheric with the feature colour scheme being black, grey, white, and green. One clever feature is introducing the rest of the class with one page made into a grid with each character in one square with their name and a speech bubble saying a short sentence. This simple but effective design hints at what each character is like eg giddy, serious, forgetful or eager.

If you want a magical school series which is an escapade with cliffhangers and action look elsewhere, but for a tender, easy, pleasant read, this is for you.

128 pages / Reviewed by Natalie J McChrystal Plimmer

Suggested Reading Age 5+