Bras & Broomsticks

Bras & Broomsticks

by Sarah Mlynowski

Delacorte, 2006

ISBN 0385731841

320 pages

3.5 (out of 5) STARS

Plot Summary

Rachel comes home from school one day to learn that her mother is a witch and that her sister has just discovered magical powers as well. Unfortunately, Rachel has not been blessed with any of these magical powers. Rachel really wants to be popular, to have a boyfriend, get a date to the spring fling, have a larger bra size and dance in the cool annual fashion show. Rachel convinces Mira to use some magical spells on her to grant some of these wishes.

Rachel and Mira's father is also planning on getting married very soon to a woman neither of them much care for. They think Jennifer is mean and that she acts one way in front of their dad and another way when he is not around. So the girls plot to use magic to foil the wedding plans.

Magic can be dangerous and often have disastrous effects and the girls learn this the hard way.

Critical Evaluation

This book was a fun, easy read. The mood of the story was light and breezy. I found this to be true of all the chick lit books that I read for this class. Actually I believe this to be a selling point of chick lit. I have quite a few friends who say "life is hard enough, why do I want to read about more of life's problems?" Chick lit may have a few problems but they are all nicely tied up at the end. In Bras & Broomsticks there were a few loose ends but this book is the first in a series so I imagine everything will continue to flow nicely and problems will be solved as we go along. I would be interested to read the rest of the books in this series.

Even though chick lit, in general and this book in particular, can be predictable, I still appreciated the themes of this book. Two strong themes presented themselves in this book: 1- messing with fate and the universe by using magic (or any other technique) can prove dangerous. And 2- If people do not like (or love) us for who we are then using magic or bribes or pretending to be someone other than we are, etc., will not bring lasting friendship and happiness. Those who truly love us, love us for who we are.

This was my favorite chick lit book of the class.

Reader’s Annotation

Rachel finds out her mother and sister are witches.

Information about the author

Sarah was born in Montreal, Canada. After graduating with an honors degree in English literature from McGill University, she moved to Toronto to work for Harlequin Enterprises. While she never met Fabio, she used her romance publishing experiences to fuel her first novel MILKRUN.

Since then Sarah has written four additional novels for adults: FISHBOWL, AS SEEN ON TV, MONKEY BUSINESS and ME VS. ME, and the teen novels BRAS & BROOMSTICKS, FROGS & FRENCH KISSES, SPELLS & SLEEPING BAGS and PARTIES & POTIONS—all in the ‘Magic in Manhattan’ series, as well as GIMME A CALL and TEN THINGS WE DID (AND PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE).

http://sarahm.com/bio.php

Genre

Chick lit.

Curriculum Ties

Family relationships. Reading for pleasure.

Booktalking Ideas

*What would you do if you found out your sister was a witch? *If you had magical powers, what would you wish for?

Reading Level

Grades 6 to 9. So technically this may be a bit below this class level. But I still think older teenage girls would enjoy it.

Challenge Issues

N/A

Why Included?

I included this book because I needed some Chick Lit in my database. I got this title from the Chick Lit presentation for our class.