Oakleaf Academy First Day at School – MG Book Review

Synopsis: When Poppy arrives by owl-bus for her first day at Oakleaf Academy, she’s feeling nervous. Having always lived in a human town, she’s never seen so many magical creatures in one place! But she soon makes friends with Jessamy, a talkative sprite, and Lily, an artistic fairy.

Getting to know some other members of the class, such as sharp-tongued Azalea, is harder. But could their unfriendly attitudes be covering up a larger secret?

When a midnight feast results in the unexpected discovery of a mysterious map, Poppy, Jessamy, and Lily are flung headlong into an adventure that will take them into the mysterious old tunnels beneath the school, and beyond.

Release Date: 8th March 2023

Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Friendship, Magic, Fairies, Boarding School

Pages: 128

Thank you so much to Arcturus and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Review: It’s the first semester at Oakleaf Academy and the new sprites, brownies, pixies, fairies, leprechauns and gnomes are ready to learn the magic and get their sparks. They have four big magic tests to determine what their wand spark will be.

I really loved seeing how the magic spark got unlocked, with the students having to do different tests in each field and learning where their strengths really lie. It was interesting as each ones personality was so different and they each did well in the tests but only one would be stronger than another and give them the spark.

I liked that the friendship bloomed between the girls, Ivy, Poppy and Jessamy became friends instantly, but at first Azalea wasn’t interested in being friends with them but she eventually progressed and learnt that she can do more with friends at her side. It was really sweet having character development in the first book.

This is a great series for magic fans, for fairy fans and for fantasy fans. It’s a really easy and fun read, the characters are all really unique and the magic is different to any others I’ve read. I think it will be a great series that children will love and it comes with some absolutely wonderful illustrations throughout that I love looking at, the characters are all so unique and I loved seeing the visual of them in each picture.