Spell Sweeper
Lee Edward Födi
HarperCollins
Published November 30, 2021
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About Spell Sweeper
Magic is messy. A standalone middle grade fantasy featuring a failed young wizard and her chaotically fun cleanup crew.
Cara Moone is a wizard—and she’s basically flunked out of wizard school. Now she’s in training to be a MOP, a.k.a. Magical Occurrence Purger, a.k.a. it’s Cara’s job to sweep up the hazardous dust a real wizard’s spells leave behind.
A real wizard, that is, like Harlee Wu, the so-called “Chosen One” destined to save the magical world. But when one of Harlee’s spells goes awry and leaves behind a rift in the fabric of magic itself, it’ll take more than magic to clean up that mess. Luckily, messes are kind of Cara’s thing.
My Review
I feel like snarky books can be kind of a risk for me, because sometimes I love the quirkiness and confidence of the main character, and other times it kind of grates on my nerves and seems like the character can never be happy with anything. This book packs a lot of snark, but it brings an awful lot of fun, too, so I felt like the upbeat, quirky fun elements created the perfect balance.
I enjoyed the way the relationships developed and watching Cara learn new things about the magical world in which she lives as well as her journey toward finding her place in it. I really liked the idea that certain types of magic leave behind a residue that has to be cleaned by specialists like Cara. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I loved that at the end of the story, there’s a note from the author about his family member who made his own brooms, too. How cool to be able to bring something so personal to life in a fantasy novel. I loved that it was part of the inspiration.
To be honest, I’m a little bit sad that SPELL SWEEPER is a standalone! I would definitely read another book about Cara, Harlee, Gusto and their friends. I feel like readers looking for stories about schools for wizard students will love this fresh, fun book.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Representation
There’s a magical hierarchy at Cara’s school. Wizards get additional privileges and access to certain coursework that Cara, as a Spell Sweeper, doesn’t get.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
There are some made up swears, like “dratch”.
Romance/Sexual Content
None.
Spiritual Content
Some characters have the ability to perform magic or can use objects to perform magic.
Violent Content
Situations of peril.
Drug Content
Some teen characters vape or smoke cigarettes.
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