Reviewed by Michelle Stanley for Readers' Favorite

Angel Castle is a fantasy for preteens written by Rita Mery. Each year Papa Fairy trains seven tiny fairies from Angel Castle for an important mission to help a problematic child on Earth. However, this chosen group is the most inexperienced, complex, absent-minded bunch of fairies he has taught, but they possess qualities Papa Fairy knows will be useful on the mission. Grooch is the grumpiest, Terrence is a “know it all”, and outspoken Shirley picks fights and shouts a lot. If the human child’s behaviour improves, then the mission is successful and the fairies will earn the prestigious Angelic Award. If it is not, they will have to stay on Earth indefinitely until the child changes, and sometimes this does not occur. The fairies are worried, as they have never seen a child before, but lie because they do not want to appear naïve in front of Papa Fairy and each other.

Rita Mery has written an enchanting story in Angel Castle. I like her humorous writing style and think the story is very imaginative. It was appealing from the beginning. I was amused and impressed by the information that Papa Fairy had in the dossiers he kept on each of the tiny fairies. Although Angel Castle is entertaining, Rita Mery made the problems of the human child realistic, so preteens who have similar problems will be able to relate to them and learn how to cope or adapt to their situations. There are many unique characters and the colourful illustrations are wonderful.