Reviewed by Priya Mathew for Readers' Favorite

The Wishkeeper’s Daughter by Michele Ashman Bell starts with a loss. Twelve-year-old Pippa Rowe loses her mother and finds herself alone in the world. It is then that the mirror in her bedroom begins to glow and speak her name, pulling her into Wishmoor Academy, a magical school for fairy godmothers. There, she learns that her mother once walked the same halls and that magic runs in her blood. As Pippa settles into a new life of talking unicorns, singing classmates, and strange lessons in listening rather than spellcasting, she also begins to unravel the truth about the father she never knew. Old wounds and new friendships pull her in different directions. While trying to solve the mystery of the glowing messages in her diary, will Pippa finally choose between the family she has created in this new world and the one she still might save?

The Wishkeeper's Daughter, the first book in Michele Ashman Bell's Wishmoor Chronicles, reads like stepping into a gentler, glitter-dusted version of Hogwarts, for readers a few years younger than the ones who grew up on wands and Quidditch. The story leans into the magic school genre, and the familiar bones are there: the sorting, the sharp-tongued rival born into old-world privilege, and the forbidden hallway nobody should wander into. Once the plot kicks in, it kicks in hard, and the second half of the book moves with real urgency, unicorns and all. What I liked most was how human Pippa stays. She carries her grief honestly, letting it surface in small, believable moments, a locket touched without thinking, a diary held like a lifeline. Freya and Lilou make an excellent comic pair, and Kyren and Caspian add warmth without stealing the focus from Pippa. Rowena's arc from rival to reluctant friend is one of the more satisfying threads. The Wishkeeper's Daughter is about choosing who you become when no one hands you a script. Young readers who love magic schools, found family, and a heroine who feels real even while flying on a unicorn will adore this story. All in all, this is a book for the child who still checks the mirror twice, just in case it might whisper their name.