The Unfortunate Wishes of Nelly Young

January 6, 2025
Twelve-year-old Nelly Young hopes to use her weeklong spring break to reinvent herself after an incident makes her the laughingstock of her grade. When her loving yet awkward single father acquires a pair of hand-me-down sneakers for a bargain, Nelly feels like they’re a sign that nothing will change, prompting Nelly and her best friends, filmmaker Jas and mad scientist Clara, to attempt a “little manifestation spell” meant to change her luck. To the trio’s surprise, it works. The granted wishes Nelly tossed into their makeshift firepit (a battery-operated candle in a bowl) provide the perfect escape for the girls to gain popularity and confidence: Camp Chaos, an adventure program where Nelly believes anything can happen.
But the wishes have unforeseen consequences, forcing Nelly to figure out how to reverse the magic before it’s too late. Through Nelly’s comedic first-person narration, Garrod (the Inflatables series) follows one week in the lives of three theatrical girls who dream big and love hard. Positive messaging about self-acceptance and processing change is somewhat muddled by uneven pacing, but there are plenty of sweet and laugh-out-loud moments to drive this bighearted novel home. Characters are described as having varying skin tones. Ages 8–12.