I make no secret of the fact I’m a sucker for books about magic schools. So when this came up, it went on my immediate “read this as soon as you can” list. A magic school where the main character is essentially a magical janitor? Hundred points for concept and creativity right there. Extra points for all the “why did this place look like a regular school? Shouldn’t there be ghosts in the closets?” comments. Those were just fun.
I suppose I don’t need to say I enjoyed the setting. The magic was also very neat. I like how brooms were used to actually clean, and I had my ESP pleasantly confirmed when I got to the author’s note at the end and it read that the book started with the question of a magic world where brooms were used to clean. The only thing that really tripped me up for much of the book was Cara’s attitude. Even though she’s middle-school aged and feels like she got the short end of the stick (or broom handle), she was overly sarcastic about everything and judgmental to the point where it took me a while to get past that and start truly liking her. By the end, though, I’d warmed up.
Not much else to say. If you’re a fan of magic schools, I recommend reading this. The ending definitely left room for a sequel, and I’ll be keeping a lookout for that.

Very fun and quite quirky. You’ll love the main character, Cara. We’ve all been in her place in our lives but our janitor work wasn’t cleaning up magic messes:) I could liken this to Harry Potter or Elizbeth Rain’s Rule Academy 9 series, but it is its own book. Its own feeling and its own theme. It’s also not all fun and games. There are some deep subjects touched on in the plot and all are handled well by the author.
A must read for a middle grade reader or a YA reader or...an old reader like me.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in return for an honest review.

This story is a fun combination of fantasy and humor. I love how Fodi combined the various magical tropes, and then gave them all a twist. Imaginative world building that combines some real world settings/events of the Pacific Northwest with the entirely fictional Dragonsong Academy and Wizard Quarters in Seattle. Will definitely be recommending this book to my fantasy loving students!

Cara should be so excited she has been told she has magical abilities and will get to attend a school for wizards. But when her powers fall short she finds herself apart of the Spell Sweeper team. Such a lowly rank that she is not able to even participate in many of the schools activities. Yet when magic starts to go awry maybe a Spell Sweeper is exactly what is needed to save the day. Will Cara be able to put aside past grudges in order to save the world?

I really enjoyed this book. All of the characters were well written, the plot line moved so smoothly. This honestly is such a great book for anyone who likes magic. I am hoping this is a series as I would love to read about more of Cara adventures. I will be 100% using this book in my future reader advisories.

Thank you so very much HarperCollins Children's Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy.

This is a really enchanting tale that flips a lot of the typical magical tropes on their head, with some side eye towards the “Chosen one” mythology that is so necessary sometimes! It was funny, full of heart, and a little bit of found family. I appreciated Cara’s personality, and the way she will find her own way. I hope that this isn’t the last one!

This story is so fun in the way it subverts all the usual tropes of wizarding and "chosen one" narratives with a main character who is a janitor at a wizarding school. Totally creative, hilarious, and adventurous, this is a story that will literally sweep you away.

First up a big big big thank you to the author for allowing me to read this book. It definitely sounded like my cup of tea, and for most it was. Just the characters didn't work out for me. Cara wasn't the best, but I also just felt so sorry for her all the time but also at the same time wanted to shake her and her grudges. Then there is Zuki, a magical creature who talks. Everyone who knows me knows that these have to be written right for me to enjoy them. Sadly, Zuki should just *insert some not nice words*. Zuki is my favourite creature, Kitsune, of all time, and I just wanted to *insert some more not so nice words* all the time. What a total dickwad. Then there are the adults, all of them absolutely horrible and maybe they should listen to Cara for once instead of constantly dismissing her. I am also not sure what to think of the girl who is the so-called Chosen One. Due to the fact we see her through Cara's eyes and she is all about that big conflict and whatever more my view may be coloured of her. Maybe she is a cool girl, but for most I found her stuck-up.

I also kept having HP flashbacks. The whole Blisses and the Magic people. The chosen one (but not having a facial scar). How the people who came from Blisses were treated and bullied (which reminded me of Hogwarts and then especially the later parts of the book when Voldemort is stronger and evil is closer by). There are other books I read about magic schools, but this just felt so much HP at points. XD

What I did like. Well, the cover for instance. The idea of sweepers who clean up after magic is used was fun (though I would have rather seen sweepers who actually want to do the job and feel awesome doing it rather than people who got rejected on school and forced into this position). I love that magic can run amok if you leave it which causes some epic and scary things. That thing we got to see in the beginning with the slime and scariness was just so cool. I love that brooms aren't used for flying but for other things. I love the school itself and the lessons one can learn. I love the colours of the robes and wished I could see them for myself. I loved that this is a boarding school (favourite thing ever). I loved that Cara is apparently quite strong despite everyone saying she isn't, she can really kick some butt. I love the parts in between the chapters telling us about the magic world and all the things that happens. Love seeing familiars of people (so want an owl, though a hedgehog would also be perfect and awesome!), Lockers were you can think (if you are strong enough) the combination and it opens, want that so much.

So yeah, I didn't finish, but given NG wants me to rate, I would still rate it 2 stars because there were elements I really enjoyed and I don't feel it deserved 1 star.

Spell Sweeper by Lee Edward Fodi is a refreshing take on wizards and wizard schools. Caradine and her fellow sweepers were great characters and her interactions with the rest of the school were fun and serious at the same time. I will definitely recommend this book for the fantasy readers in my library.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Calling all folks looking for an alternative to Harry Potter: this may be your ticket to ride.

In the world of SPELL SWEEPER, magic is...messy. Spells leave a residue and dust after being performed, and the bigger the output of magic, the bigger the mess to be cleaned up. Cara Moone is part of the MOP program (that's Magical Occurrence Purger) at Dragonsong Academy. What that really means is she cleans up after other wizards who draw on the Field of Magic, magical broom in hand. What she thinks it means is that she's not a real wizard, as the MOP classes are technically labeled "remedial."

Then there's Cara's self-determined arch nemesis, Harlee Wu, the so-called Chosen One who'll save all of magickind one day. (But, like, will she though? OoOoh, Big Chosen One energy over here, look out.) At the beginning of Cara's seventh grade school year at Dragonsong, a spell that Harlee performs somehow punches a rift into the Field of Magic, rendering it unstable and liable to backfire and hurt someone. Or, at the worst, collapse in on itself completely. Cara has no choice but to wield her broom for the good of the Field as they know it.

The Plot
Something we don't usually think about in a series like Harry Potter is the cleanup. One scene that passes really quickly, but has stuck with me for years, is in the last movie when Hogwarts is in complete shambles, and Filch is just sweeping away at a pile of debris taller than he is. He picks up a rock, looks at it, and chucks it back onto the others. Magic undoubtedly leaves a mess behind, and in SPELL SWEEPER we get a backstage look, so to speak, at the wizards in charge of cleaning up that mess.

Cara and her two MOP classmates, Gusto and Zuki (who's a two-tailed fox from Japan, btw), are always called in after the "big cool" stuff has already happened. They even grow their own broomcorn, harvest and dry it, then make their brooms so there's a connection there to magic. So even though they can't really wield a wand or anything, Cara and the crew are still called in to figure out what's causing the black slime to ooze out of the Field, and (of course) clean it up in their efficient manner.

Looking back on the villains and conflict, it did feel a bit...predictable? Not cliche, just kind of vanilla. The spin didn't come around so much on the conflict side of things. Rather, we got to see the Chosen One and Almighty Janitor tropes turned upside down. Throw in a little dash of Found Family, and you have SPELL SWEEPER.

The Characters
This was my favorite part of the book. Cara and her friends felt real, and the characters had background, history, personality. We even got to see how probably not great it is to be the Chosen One and have so many people deciding who and what you're going to be. It's hard to get into Cara's family without, um...potentially giving things away. Her character works as a sarcastic middle-schooler, is what I want to get at most here.

Sometimes you get those characters that you just want to slap; they're bratty for no reason, rude to everyone, and the people around them are all, "Oh, ha ha! That's just so-and-so!" But that's not what we get in Cara. She has flaws and acknowledges them, and in the end she does a lot of growing up in spite of wanting to be a curmudgeon. She realizes--like I had to eventually, ha--that it's okay to be sarcastic, but it's not okay to be a jerk. You have to own up to mistakes you make and misjudgments against people that turn out to be untrue. And I really liked seeing that in a middle grade novel.

The Worldbuilding
Ehhh...There's some more that can be done here. It's not "bad" but there's some places that felt skimpy or neglected. I'm hoping there'll be another one so we can see this worked on and played out a bit more. I still have questions about the wizard society and how things operate there, and if non-magical folks have to always get memory wiped when they find out about the wizards' existence.

I mean, overall, this was a solid four-star book. I'll be putting it on the acquisitions list and getting it into the hands of any patron I can this fall. Who doesn't like a warm and fuzzy read during the winter months?

Please tell me this is a series! Such a fresh take on the magic/fantasty genre! I've been recomending it to all of my fellow Youth Services librarians and will defintily be suggesting it to my magic-loving patrons when it comes in house as well as those I know who will enjoy the adventure of it all.

This was such a good story that deals with magic schools, rifts in magic and what happens when you want to be just like everyone else at magic school instead of flunking out and ending up in training to be a MOP who sweeps up hazardous dust that spells leave behind. Cara Moone just wants to be a regular student at Dragonsong Academy instead didn’t pass her 6th grade exams and got relegated to being a MOP. Now there is Harlee Wu who is the “chosen one” and who Cara thinks is responsible for the rifts in magic that coincidently keep happening every time Harlee does a spell in the vicinity. This was a good read and I thought I knew who was behind everything but I was so surprised when it was revealed who was the actual mastermind behind everything. Everything gets resolved mostly neatly, Cara and Harlee end up kinda friends and Cara ends up loving being a MOP.

Thanks to Harper Collins Children’s Books and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Yup this book is still just as amazing as when I listened to it by audiobook form. and I still highly recommend it to everyone.

Solid middle grade fantasy about a girl who thinks of herself as a “wizard school failure” since she is assigned to spell sweeping instead of the main wizard track. Appreciate the setup that spells require clean up, the examination of wizard family and main track studies privilege, and the navigation of old grief of dad’s death. Very different school of magic genre, for kids who don’t see themselves as “school champion’s.”

This was just fun from the opening chapter to the last sentence. Imaginative, well written, great characters, and a good story all combined for a magical afternoon.

Spell Sweeper is a fun adventure for any middle-grade lover of magic! Right from the beginning, the voice of Cara Moone draws you in with her wit and sarcasm. The wonderful wizard school she attends has hints of Hogwarts, but Hogwarts never had Spell Sweepers! I loved the concept of the Spell Sweepers who have to clean up the magic mess left behind by wizards. I thought it was such a clever idea!

At times I did feel Cara was complaining about her situation a lot, but the reasons for her complaints were backed up by the story and we could see why she felt the way she did. It was great to watch her story arc, which was well paced throughout the book.

This was a very fun read, especially for anyone who loves magic! Highly recommend!

My 10yo and I loved reading Spell Sweeper together. This was a great read-aloud book because, in addition to the exciting twists and turns, there were many laugh-out-loud moments that made us pause and giggle with each other. That's the best!

The story was quirky and hilarious, like the grandma's funny overuse of "hashtag" trying to be cool. My son definitely wants a three-tailed fox now. Besides the fun bits, this story had real meat and was a well-crafted narrative with strong characters and realistic, subtle development arcs.

I especially enjoy a good twist, and this book had several! I won't include spoilers, but I will say that the reveal about the occuli was surprising. Did not see that coming, nor did we anticipate the twist about the leader of the Cipher.

We also enjoyed the clever details sprinkled throughout, such as the fun chapter titles ("That Sinking Feeling You Get When You're--Well, Sinking"). And sheesh, cliffhangers galore. It was like a boxer getting pummeled in the ring! Another reason it was a great read-aloud. "One more!" was a constant refrain.

On a personal note, I very much appreciated the theme that two contradictory things can be simultaneously true, that we can be more than one thing and that’s okay. If any kid reading this book takes that to heart, they'll be one up on me at that age...

I also really loved the Author's Note, specifically about his grandfather’s handmade brooms. Beautiful.

My thanks to the author for an advance reader copy.

Caradine Moone (Cara) is a bit of a misfit in the wizarding world. Due to a series of mishaps at wizard school, Cara finds herself cast as "Spell Sweeper". Rather than learning and perfecting the magic, she cleans up the magic after it's used. It's not the prettiest job, but Cara and her cleanup crew are always there to make sure no trace of magic is left behind.

This book is full of great humor and fun with many nods to other wizarding stories we all know and love. Cara's sarcasm, wit, and determination to prove everyone around her wrong will surely appeal to young readers. It's a delighful story for all ages, especially those who dream of attending wizard school themselves.

This was inventive, funny, complex, and engaging. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and the way the narrative really dug into just what having a magical/mundane world division would be like. Since Cara's relationship with her sister was such a central part of the story I was disappointed that there wasn't much resolution with it at the end of the book, but there were several other things also left hanging for a possible sequel. I hope there is one!

So fun! I loved how this story played with all these established Magic school tropes while still giving something that felt fresh and exciting. Cara Moon was a really fun, interesting and relatable protag and I loved Zuki the Three Tailed Fox. The magic system and the whole idea of Spell Sweeping and spell dust was well thought out and so cool! But overall, this was a bright and vibrant new magic school tale with a lot of fun moments and a few good twists.

A good twist on a traditional story. I enjoyed Cara's adventures and am glad she learned that she is more than she realizes and her abilities are not to be looked down upon.