The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association

This clever and captivating fantasy from bestseller Rozakis (Dreadful) puts a unique twist on the magical school trope by focusing on the harried, out of their depths unmagical parents of a magically gifted child. After kindergartner Aria gets bitten by a rogue member of aConnecticut werewolf pack, her mother, former accountant and recovering people pleaser Vivian, gets swept up into the often terrifying world of the East Coast's elite private magical academies. In addition to more mundane issues like bringing the wrong thing to a bake sale, trying to befriend the school's Queen Bee moms, and failing to make sense of discrepancies in the PTA accounting files, Vivian must manage her daughter's now extremely dangerous habit of biting people and tendency to turn into a wolf during her meltdowns. There's also the matter of an ominous prophecy that suggests Aria may be hastening the town's doom. The resulting romp offers both a gentle satire of elite private schools and a sympathetic depiction of the struggles of caring for a special needs child. Often funny and always empathetic, this is sure to delight Rozakis's fans and win her plenty of new ones. (May)

In Rozakis's latest (Dreadful), Vivian and Daniel's daughter Aria is sent to Grimoire Grammar School after being bitten and turning into a werewolf. One would expect things to be quite different at a school full of various magical creatures, but Vivian soon finds out that being a parent on the PTA here is not much different than at any other school. Between the drama and cliques, Vivian is struggling to fit in among the other parents. She wants Aria not only to have friends and playdates but also to be able to continue on at Grimoire Grammar, where kindergarteners must pass a series of tests to prove their abilities in order to move up to first grade. Meanwhile, strange things keep happening, which are causing the community to panic that their prophesied downfall has finally arrived. VERDICT Full of humor and relatable parenting moments, this is a must-read for those who grew up loving stories of magical schools and are looking for a new fantasy world.--Leigh Verburg