Polly Diamond and the magic book by Alice Kuipers, illustrated by Diana Toledano

Polly loves to write stories. If she could write any story, she'd write one about how her family gets a bigger house - so she wouldn't have to share her room with her annoying little sister Anna when her new baby brother is born.

Then Polly gets a wonderful gift, a blank notebook to write stories in! She starts writing a story... and the book talks back to her! It doesn't take long for Polly to figure out that she can make the stories she writes come true. Her parents have left Polly and Anna with the babysitter while they rush her mom to the hospital for the birth of her baby brother, and Polly decides to give her book a try.

At first, it's wonderful; she gets rid of her annoying sister, a bigger house, and cool aquarium walls. But then things start to get out of hand. Is her magic book helping or making things worse?

The inside illustrations are in soft grays. They show a biracial family; Polly's mother is black and she and her sister look similar with darker skin and textured hair. Their father is white, as are the babysitter and teacher. The cover of the book is picked out in glitter, showing the magic coming from the book.

Verdict: While this debut is a little shaky, with a lot of different things going on, it has enough good bones to promise a potentially popular series. Recommend to fans of Fancy Nancy chapters and Bea Garcia. Recommended.

ISBN: 9781452152325; Published May 2018 by Chronicle; Borrowed from another library in my consortium