As an English teacher who mostly works with 6th graders, I quite like Middle Grade Fantasy and think that they get overlooked and undervalued in the genre fiction world. However, novellas aren’t particularly common in the middle grade space, which made it hard to find a good fit if I truly wanted to have a novella themed r/fantasy bingo card, which requires a middle grade book this year. I decided to go with something a bit sillier and younger than I’d normally read in this space; Gumluck is more targeted at 8-9 year-olds than 11-12, and I think it would probably make a great bedtime storybook for kids even younger than 8.
Read If Looking For: sassy ravens, technically compliant wishes, telling the truth isn’t always the right move
Avoid If You Dislike: goofiness, egregious misunderstandings, lovable loners
Elevator Pitch:
Gumluck is the Very Small Wizard who Lives in a Very Big Hill. The villagers ask him for help, but never say hello or thank you. Gumluck accidentally knocks over the raven Helvetica’s nest, sparking the start of a long friendship and many silly adventures for the series to follow. In this book, Gumluck wants to become the Harvest Hero, a prize given to the most helpful villager – who conveniently has been the crown prince for the past two decades. However, he doesn’t realize the villagers look down on him, but he will press on to try and help as many people as he possibly can.
What Worked for Me
This book had enough humor in it that I enjoyed my time with Gumluck. At first the over-the-top characters and bumbling attitudes annoyed me. However, the farcical vibes were tempered by the dry humor of Helvetica. Without her as our narrator, I think I would have strongly disliked this book. As it stands, she provides good tonal breaks with her dry wit and lovable grumpiness. Is she kind of a stereotypical character? Yes, she is. But I’m a sucker for people who point out the obvious and have no time of other people’s quiet niceties, so her bluntness really endeared me to her. She also served as a good mouthpiece to get at various themes for kids who developmentally are still working on inference and abstract concepts.
I also feel like this is a book that will be great for developmentally typical kids in the 3rd grade range. Yes, some people were reading Wheel of Time at that age, but Gumluck is a much more appropriate book for the average kid that age into fantasy. There’s conflict without it being violent. There’s some social skills instruction without it feeling over explained. It’s not going to give them nightmares or close enough to reality for them to start overlapping the two. The book has lots of cute illustrations that keep developing readers interest as they bridge into chapter books. Also Helvetica (whom I love dearly), again makes for a great narrator during a read aloud, since gives the story the vibe of an oral tale already, making it a great fit for parents and kids still learning to read.
What Didn’t Work for Me
The biggest strike against this book is that I’m not the target audience for it. It was enjoyable enough, but not one that is going to appeal more broadly to adult audiences or kids who feel they’ve outgrown ‘books for little kids’. It’s got less edge to it than a Disney Movie, and that tone would have grated on me had I chosen to pick up the sequel. I won’t buy a copy for my classroom, as even my low readers are going to bounce off this pretty hard. I will, however, consider giving it as a gift to my friends who are new parents.
Conclusion: most adults won’t enjoy this unless they’re reading it with their kids. However, it’s the type of story I’d have wanted my mom to read to me
Marked for Plot 