Never Girls #3: A Dandelion Wish (Disney: The Never Girls)

By Kiki Thorpe and Jana Christy

Kate, Mia, Lainey, and Gabby are special girls. They know how to travel between their hometown and Never Land—through a broken slat in a backyard fence. But what happens when the fence is repaired . . . with one of the girls stuck on the Never Land side? Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies star in a magical new early chapter book series for readers ages 6–10 The Never Girls!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9780385383554

Kiki Thorpe

Kiki Thorpe is the best-selling author of the Never Girls series. Her work can also been seen in the Makers Make It Work series.

Reviews for Never Girls #3

[lcaitday · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Age 7-9. The third book in Disney’s latest series Never Girls, about four girls and their adventures in Neverland. This installment focuses on Mia and the task set for her to watch her younger sister Gabby. She rejects her responsibility and goes to Neverland anyways, bringing back a fairy named Rosetta to play with. She refuses to let her sister play with them, so Gabby rebels and runs to Neverland alone. The problem is the portal between lands closes and traps Gabby and Rosetta away from their respective homes. Mia and her friends must fix this mix up before her parents realize she’s lost her sister! The story is written in short, formulaic chapters and uses a familiar universe for Disney fans that makes it a solid transition for young girls to explore higher reading levels. The major themes are showing consequences for not following through with your responsibilities and appreciating what you have. Girls with younger or older sisters would especially relate to Mia and Gabby’s frustration with one another and their eventual reconciliation. But really any girl that just loves fairies and adventures will fall in love with this series. Recommended.

[arquay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The premise of A Dandelion Wish is frequently borrowed but still effective: children find a portal within their homes to a magical world (that they also must protect from adult interference), and their escape to this world means extraordinary adventures, complicated problem-solving and eventually, inner growth. The magic that a young reader finds within A Dandelion Wish will not be from fairies, but from the comfort of a well-worn tale and lighthearted escapism. Kiki Thorpe has put two sisters at the center of the third book in The Never Girls series, at odds with each other from the very start, when older sister Mia is stuck babysitting little Gabby instead of venturing back into Neverland with her friends, Kate and Lainey. Both girls attempt to get their own way: Mia sneaks into Neverland and brings a fairy back to her house to try on doll clothes, while Gabby, turned away from the fairy fashion-show fun, makes her own escape to Neverland to seek entertainment.This story is divided into short, easy-to-swallow chapters, peppered with soft, whimsical gray-scale drawings by Jana Christy, perfect for readers new to chapter books. A Dandelion Wish may be a little cloying for adult readers, but they will appreciate Thorpe’s well-meaning effort to accurately display sibling interactions and their endless battle of who-is-annoying-whom/who-is-being-not-fair-to-whom. They will also hopefully appreciate that a Latino family is so prominently featured in a mass-produced series, which continues to be a rarity in children’s literature.