A cute little book about magical creatures, a book that describes them, and a girl who can talk to them. This would be a great book to read aloud to my kids if they were in elementary school again.

A fun adventure with a plucky heroine, scared sidekick, and their host of magical creature run-ins. Imagine arrogant unicorns, furballs that spontaneously burst into fire, scary grims, mean ducks and something called a hobgrackle and you have just scratched the surface of the imaginative creatures that appear throughout the story. Poor Pip has been banished to Cloverton after a fiasco at school involving show unicorns. She befriends Tomas, a boy who has allergies to his allergies and together they work to find out why Fuzzles are suddenly invading everyone's underwear drawers. Humourous, fun story with easy to like characters makes this is an easy one for middle graders to love.

This is probably one of the cutest books I've ever read. Pearce and Stiefvater masterfully crafted a magical book for kids. I don't think I have one negative thing to say about it. I highly suggest it to children and adults alike. I can't wait for my nephew to grow up so he can read this book!

So great! Pip can talk to magical creatures but no one believes her. The magical creatures are excellent and plentiful and Pip is a great character. Everyone who is or has been a kid can relate to adults dismissing your talent/knowledge.

Super fun, great to read aloud

Pip has the mostly-secret ability to talk with the magical creatures that are common-place in a world that looks a lot like our own but with unicorns, griffins, and Fuzzles (basically dust mops that burst into flame when they get excited or scared). When a Fuzzle outbreak incites some people to call for their destruction, Pip, her new friend Tomas, and his numerous allergies search for a solution.

The characters don't have a huge amount of in-depth development, but it's a cute, funny realistic fantasy book for kids who are big animal fans.

How could you not love a book with a precocious young girl who is misunderstood and just trying her darnedest to help? Plus you have so many wonderful magic creatures that it was an absolute delight! Grims: a cross between a dire-wolf and a ninja dog....now that sounds adorably hilarious!

3rd grade booktalk
Pip Bartlett is one of those main characters who’s really bad at everything she tries to do, even though she doesn’t mean to, and one day her being bad at stuff goes too far and she gets sent away. You know those main characters – they’re in a lot of books, fantasy or not. Luckily for Pip, though, she’s sent away to her Aunt Emma, who’s a magical animal veterinarian. And, even though no one believes her, Pip can talk to magical animals (which is, coincidentally, the reason she gets sent away – all I’ll tell you about what happened is that it involves some Unicorns), so this seems like a really good fit. Until the Fuzzles.
Fuzzles seem adorable, and harmless – until they get frightened, or excited, or super happy, or…. A lot of reasons, really – at which point they catch fire. Don’t worry, though the Fuzzles don’t get hurt… just everything surrounding or touching them. And a Fuzzle’s favorite place to hide? Underwear drawers. (Guess what? If you didn’t know – underwear is super flammable.) Pip and her aunt are working as hard as they can to stop the Fuzzle problem – but local authorities are getting angry about all the fires – and want to exterminate all the Fuzzles.
Pip and her aunt don’t want that to happen – but how can they figure out how to solve the Fuzzle problem? Their thought of putting them all on an island in the middle of the local lake backfired when the Fuzzles (who they thought couldn’t swim or touch water) start leaving the island on the backs of local glassfish and catching everything on fire again. But wait, you say – didn’t you say that Pip can talk to magical animals? Yes. Yes I did. But Fuzzles don’t talk. That would just make this book too easy.
Will the Fuzzles, tiny, fuzzy, adorable creatures who probably don’t mean to be lighting everyone’s underwear on fire be exterminated? Or will Pip figure something out?