Diary of an Accidental Witch #2: Flying High; Honor & Perdita Cargill, illustrated by Katie Saunders

I loved the first book in this four book series and was super excited to get an advanced read of book number two. So with a large bag of fluffmallows and some fizzy skullsquigglers on hand I dived right in…

Bea Black has settled into life in Little Spellshire and is gradually channeling her inner-witch at the local school for extraordinary people. She’s even getting to grips with levitation…finally! It’s exciting times, with the Grand Tournament and the Winter Solstice quickly approaching.

But after a minor frog-related mishap, Ms Sparks announces that the Grand Tournament will be replaced with an ordinary sports day against the local ordinary school, urgh. With magic not allowed, tensions mounting and everyone desperate to win, can Bea avoid being a total toadbrain…

Mother and daughter team Honor and Perdita Cargill have firmly established themselves as two of the funniest and most magical writers of books for young readers and this is another spell-tacular read! Picking up where the second book left off, we join Bea Black as she navigates her way through the second half term at the School of Extraordinary Arts. And what a term it is, fizzing with excitement, new experiences - both good and not so good, and a heck of a lot to learn (even a witch-in-training has to know her eight times table).

Bea’s zany diary is brimming with excitement and hilarious anecdotes and I only wish my life was half as eventful. When she’s not looking after Stan the frog, caring for an unidentified egg or completing a very long list of homework tasks, she’s teaching witches the intricacies of high jump, trying to master flying skills, playing GO and making her first witchy wish on the Winter Solstice Chocolate Log.

Mastering witch skills are not Bea’s only problems. In amongst all of the magical mishaps, hijinks, flying lessons and adventures into the forest is a girl who wants to fit in and make friends. And Bea has plenty of friendship challenges to overcome. Torn between her best non-witch friend Ash and her new witch classmates, she finds herself in a bit of pickle, one which results in a rather spectacular cake and snowball fight that has some very bad consequences.

The somewhat calamitous and unfortunate Bea is no stranger to mishaps and magical blunders and finds herself standing out for all the wrong reasons which is not ideal when you're trying to keep your true identity a secret from your best friend and a very enthusiastic dad. And as Bea struggles to balance the two very different worlds in which she lives and keep them secret from one another, it seems only a matter of time before everything will be revealed. But perhaps this won’t be the disaster that Bea fears it will be.

Kind-hearted Bea is absolutely hilarious and her diary of her rather extraordinary day-to-day life is laugh-out-loud fun. Brilliantly illustrated throughout, this is sure to be a hit with any young witches or wizards in training! I know lots of children that are keen to read Harry Potter books but are not quite of the age where the books fit their reading needs so it is awesome to have a new series of books that I can recommend. Bea Black and her misadventures make for a cracking introduction to all things magical school related, it is an absolute treat!

With huge thanks to Little Tiger for the copy I received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Recommended for 7+.