Author: Daniel Nayeri
Illustrator: Anneliese Mak
© Date: 2019
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Pages: 123
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, most page layouts have an illustration
Publisher Recommended Age: 7-10 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: Sasha’s father sells magic potions. There’s only one problem—his potions don’t work.
Sasha knows they don’t work—they can’t work! Magic isn’t real! But everyone in town buys Papa’s potions, so Sasha has to take magic into her own hands.
When local chocolate maker Ms. Kozlow comes to the potion shop asking for luck, it’s up to Sasha to find out why. Ms. K has a matchmaking appointment with Granny Yenta this afternoon—is that why she needs luck? How can Sasha make it her lucky day?
Page Pig Thoughts: This one was alright. The story moved along at a good pace to keep the pages turning, but I felt rather meh about the story. Sasha is rather science based, so she doesn’t believe that magic is possible. She works on her detective skills to prevent her fear of someone turning her father in to the police for making a faulty potion come true.
I was slightly bothered by the character of Puck, mostly because I didn’t understand what he was. The pictures show him as a super dirty child, but he acts like an animal and doesn’t speak a common language. He is a bit of comedic relief, but mostly a mystery that bothered me not to understand what he was doing.
Do Sasha’s detective/snooping skills save the day? Maybe. Would Page Pup enjoy this one? Maybe. Would I read the next one in this series? Maybe. This one was okay, but didn’t have enough to keep me going.
Family Unit: Sasha lives with her father, an apothecary. Her mother, an alchemist, is off helping with a war effort.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- Sasha’s neighbors believe in magic potions. Sasha believes in science and is paranoid that her father will be turned in to the cops for making a faulty potion (magic potions can’t possibly work).
- Sasha has a hard time tolerating people that do not shower, so being friends with super dirty Puck is tricky.
Positive Items:
- Maybe the potion really did work, but Sasha discovers that friendship and kindness are important.
- Everything works out, the magical ceremony paired two people that were already in love and nobody got upset with anyone else.
Items of Interest:
- Sasha’s father is an apothecary, but when his wife leaves for an undetermined amount of time, he continues making his wife’s alchemist potions when customers request them.
- Ms. Kozlow requests a luck potion. Sasha only believes in science, so she follows Ms. Kozlow around and snoops on her to make sure that Ms. Kozlow doesn’t get upset about Sasha’s father’s potion not working. Since it is a magic potion, Sasha believes that it cannot work. Sasha’s snooping is “detective” work.
- Sasha becomes friends with Ms. Kozlow.
- Sasha runs into a dirty creature in the alley behind Ms. Kozlow’s shop. He looks like a boy, but grunts and has more animal-like abilities. Sasha calls him Puck.
- Puck climbs in the window at Ms. Kozlow’s shop. Sasha reluctantly follows him in to continue her investigation. Pucks eats all the macarons from the back room.
- Sasha discovers that Ms. Kozlow’s father is forcing her to see the local witch matchmaker. Ms. Kozlow already has a love interest, but her father is not kind.
- One potential suitor for Ms. Kozlow is a good-looking, conceited, not so bright or kind man, Latouche. Another suitor is a kind, younger, generous son of a wealthy man, Basil. Another suitor is a kind inventor that Ms. Kozlow seems to find good looking, Gregor.
- Sisal is the younger sister of Basil. She is self centered and unkind. She even makes unkind comments to her brother.
- Sasha attempts to rig the magic matchmaking ceremony. It never really says if what she did had any effect on the outcome until the very end when her father makes a comment that Sasha had saved Ms. Kozlow and given Gregor a good wife. Since Sasha’s rigging was supposed to be a secret, her father’s comments are a bit mysterious.
- All of the suitors and Sasha’s father wind up at the magical ceremony. No one gets upset by the results and they dissipate at the end.
- Sasha realizes that she had a lucky sort of day – her father is kind and loving, she made a friends with Puck, she made friends with Ms. Kozlow, and she got a dessert (even if it was the dirty one from Puck’s pocket).
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book 2 – The Elixir Fixers: Sasha and Puck and the Cordial Cordial
- Book 3 – The Elixir Fixers: Sasha and Puck and the Cure for Courage
- Book 4 – The Elixir Fixers: Sasha and Puck and the Brew for Brainwash