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Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Pip Bartlett #1): Pip Bartlett, Book 1
Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Pip Bartlett #1): Pip Bartlett, Book 1
Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Pip Bartlett #1): Pip Bartlett, Book 1
Audiobook4 hours

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Pip Bartlett #1): Pip Bartlett, Book 1

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

From bestselling authors Maggie Stiefvater and Jackson Pearce comes an exciting new series full of magical creatures and whimsical adventures.

Pip is a girl who can talk to magical creatures. Her aunt is a vet for magical creatures. And her new friend, Tomas, is allergic to most magical creatures. When things go amok—and they often go amok—Pip consults Jeffrey Higgleston's Guide to Magical Creatures, a reference work that Pip finds herself constantly amending. Because dealing with magical creatures like unicorns, griffins, and fuzzles doesn't just require book knowledge—it requires hands-on experience and thinking on your feet. For example, when fuzzles (which have an awful habit of bursting into flame when they're agitated) invade your town, it's not enough to know what the fuzzles are—Pip and Tomas also must trace the fuzzles' agitation to its source, and in doing so save the whole town.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 28, 2015
ISBN9780545838610
Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Pip Bartlett #1): Pip Bartlett, Book 1
Author

Jackson Pearce

If Jackson Pearce had three wishes, she would wish for wisdom, patience, and for life to be a little more like a musical. She began writing when the school librarian told her there weren't any books that contained a smart girl, horses, baby animals, and magic. Her solution was to write the book herself. Jackson currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with a slightly cross-eyed cat and a lot of secondhand furniture.

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Reviews for Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (Pip Bartlett #1)

Rating: 4.221739160869565 out of 5 stars
4/5

115 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    For more reviews, gifs, Cover Snark and more, visit A Reader of Fictions.Obviously, I picked up Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures for one reason: Maggie Stiefvater. I’ve become a big Maggie fan since I read Sinner and The Raven Boys, and I’m super glad I can join with the crowd finally. I was torn on Pip Bartlett’s, because it’s even younger than middle grade. But also it’s Maggie. When I got the chance to review it for YA Books Central, I leaped at it, because I am a curious cat, and holy shit those animals on the cover are super cute. Pip Bartlett’s is fun, even for adults. Come for the Maggie, stay for the silliness.Unsurprisingly, Pip Bartlett’s is far removed from Stiefvater’s previous works, considering that it’s for a different age group and it’s a coauthor project. The writing style isn’t the ornate, lyrical prose that I’ve grown used to at all. The writing’s perfectly suited to the story and the audience, but it’s definitely a change.The tone also is a big change. Where Stiefvater’s stuff tends to be dark, though not without humor, and I believe Pearce’s does too, Pip Bartlett’s is all fun. Silly jokes, sometimes even gross ones about purple sweat, abound. The animals are the real bringers of the humor, because each creature that these two authors have created has its own strange and hilarious quirks. I particularly love the grumpy Griffin and the paranoid unicorn, Regent Maximus. The fuzzles are even endearing despite their lack of communication and unfortunate tendency to burn things.Plot-wise, Stiefvater and Pearce do a really nice job talking about nature, the environment, and ecosystems without hitting the readers over the head with a narrative hammer. After Pip gets sent to her aunt for the summer to learn the proper way of interacting with magical creatures, she gets involved in the fuzzle puzzle. Their little town in southern Georgia is overrun with fuzzy little, dust-eating creatures that love underwear drawers and catch on fire. Yeah, it’s a problem. Pip acts like a little biologist and updates her guide with new information throughout.Pip Bartlett’s will be ideal for the intended audience, which shouldn’t be a surprise. I think they’ll really bond with the inquisitive Pip and will adore the adorable creatures. Even the creatures I wouldn’t want to encounter look and sound awesome. Let’s be real, it’s fun to imagine unicorns and griffins existing even as an adult.I don’t know if the rest of you guys do this, but I actually read about half of the book aloud to myself, and it really enhanced my reading experience. The characters really lend themselves well to that kind of presentation, and I especially enjoyed reading Regent Maximus. Whether silent or aloud, Pip Bartlett’s is worth a read if you’re still completely fascinated by magical creatures.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Almost 4 stars. Kind of slow and the magical animals were hard to keep track of...only the unicorn was one kids will have heard of.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is like an alternate universe with magical animals. Think rainbow colored Lisa Frank type creatures: clumsy and stubborn unicorns that like to show off, winged pit-bull like HobGrackles that sweat purple goo and walk on walls, cheerful bouncing Bitterflunks that are intensely attracted to the color blue.

    In fact, it seems like none of the characters has a normal animal at all, unless I missed something? The weird thing about that is that the further into the story we get, we hear that the magical animals have been around practically forever and yet so much is unknown about even the more basic ones, as if they just appeared recently (which is what I initially assumed). Pip, a 9 year old who can read the minds of the animals, spends the whole story exiled to her aunt's clinic after an unfortunate unicorn incident, correcting the cornerstone guide to magical creatures written by an expert in the field. It makes the story funny, yes, but it also makes no sense that some of the things she discovers weren't already widely known, animal whisperer or not.

    For all of my problems with the holes in this story and how boring it becomes by the middle, it's still imaginative and has its fun moments. There are intermittent illustrations of magical creatures along with amusing information about them. My favorite part of the whole bool is the disastrous scene with the unicorns in the very beginning. I also like liked everything that Bubbles the Miniature Silky Griffon did. The central story was not as good.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pip Bartlett can talk to magical creatures, and they talk back to her. Unfortunately, no one believes her. After a magical creature incident at her school, her parents decide she should spend the summer with her aunt. Aunt Emma is a veterinarian for magical creatures, so Pip isn't too disappointed about going. Along with the picture of Pip, throughout the book, there are pictures of different magical creatures which will really appeal to kids. Other characters in the book include Tomas, Pip's friend who is allergic to everything and a bit of a hypochondriac; Regent Maximus, a neurotic unicorn who is afraid of everything; Bubbles, a grouchy Miniature Silky Griffin; and a bunch of Fuzzles who are constantly setting things on fire. Pip is determined to find out why the Fuzzles are suddenly appearing in town before Mrs. Dreadbotch from the Supernatural/Magical Animal Care, Keeping, and Education Department (S.M.A.C.K.E.D.) finds a way to get rid of them permanently. This is a Grade 3-5 Sunshine State nominated book. I predict the kids will love this one. :) I read it in a couple of hours and really liked it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very cute with a nice friendship and family bonds. The illustrations of unique magical creatures are great! Excited to see what adventure Pip gets into next,
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Pip is spending the summer with her aunt. At first it's all fun, games, and chatting until Fuzzles appear and start bursting into flames.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pip Bartlett is obsessed with magical creatures. She thinks they're interesting and carries around a guid about them all the time, but she can also talk to them. Of course no one believes her, so she tries to keep it quiet so people won't think she's crazy. After a wild ride on a unicorn that ended up with lots of damaged property, her parents thought she should spend some quality time with magical creatures at the vet office her aunt owns. There, she makes new friends, talks to lots of new magical creatures, and sets out to save pesty creatures who set themselves on fire when scared or overly excited.Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures is an adorable book. I love this alternative world where magical creatures live in the wild or at home as pets. The book is peppered with pages from the guide with Pip's own annotations and drawings. I like that it's just a single page and usually ends in the middle of a sentence. The story is very simple and predictable, so I think younger readers would definitely enjoy. I love Jackson Pearce's and Maggie Steifvater's work, so I think I expected a little more crossover to older readers. It's an enjoyable book with memorable characters and new types of magical creatures I haven't seen before.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was very excited about this book b/c I really enjoy the work these authors do. I found the characters interesting and fun, the premise funny and clever and I loved the different creatures. I thought the illustrations added a lot to the story and told me quite a bit about Pip. I'm really glad this is going to be a series and can't wait to read the rest.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book love it is a happy and wonderful so magical ????????
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Great kid's book for the child obsessed with a) animals b) magical animals c) veterinarians d) see above. Amusingly written, and a delightful portrait of the self-absorbed unicorn mindset. A lovely companion to Phoebe and Her Unicorn, if you're looking for more sarcastic, narcissistic unicorn adventures, written with wit and sparkle.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got a copy of this book to review through the Amazon Vine program. This was a very quick and fun fantasy read that will appeal to kids just getting started on chapter books. The reading level was a bit easy and the plot a bit simple for the middle grade and older crowd. Pip loves magical creatures and is absolutely obsessed with Jeffrey Higgleston’s Guide to Magical Creatures. Pip is also the only person she knows who can talk to magical creatures. After an incident with some unicorns that results in a lot of damaged people and property, Pip’s parents decide that she should spend the summer with her aunt who runs a veterinarian clinic for magical creatures. Pip is enjoying her time there until the town has a horrible outbreak of Fuzzles. Fuzzles are a danger because they ignite when they get excited or scared. Pip and her aunt want to save the Fuzzles and relocate them but local law thinks extermination is a better idea. Can Pip figure out what has the Fuzzles migrating to their town before someone really gets hurt?The story is similar in a lot of ways to the Nathaniel Fludd Beastologist series by Robin LaFevers and is written for a similar age group. It is a cute and humorous story and reminded a bit of a Carl Hiaasen middle grade novel (Scat, Hoot) combined with some of Brandon Mull's Fablehaven. There is a lot of humor and quite a few interesting magical creatures.There are pages from Jeffrey Higgleston’s Guide to Magical Creatures sprinkled throughout the book. These included some cute drawings and lots of notes scribbled all over them from Pip. I enjoyed these but was a bit irritated that they cut off these entries in mid-sentence (I kept feeling like I was missing a page in the book or something). I know, I know it’s meant to be a quick except...but can we at least end on a complete sentence?I enjoyed it but it is definitely a book I would recommend to kids starting beginning chapter books or kids just getting into middle grade fantasy. Adults aren’t going to enjoy this as much because the plot and writing are just too simple to be all that engaging. However, it is something I think my eight year old son will absolutely love. He is going to be reading it next, so I will see what he thinks about it.Overall a cute beginning chapter book about magical creatures and preservation. I enjoyed it but I think it will suit younger readers much more than adults. It is a quick and humorous read that will remind some of Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot-type of middle grade books and some of Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. If you enjoy this series I also recommend the Nathaniel Fludd Beastologist series by Robin LaFevers.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Pip Bartlett lives in a world filled with magical, mystical, mythical creatures. Pip can talk to the animals but no one believes her, so she pretends not to hear them when adults are around. Aside from that unusual ability, Pip is a normal eleven-year-old. Plus she’s smart, likable, compassionate, and loves animals.The story is fun, entertaining, and filled with illustrations of mythical creatures. Each drawing has descriptions and notes added by Pip as she makes new discoveries about each animal. No one knows much about Fuzzles and unfortunately for them, they are considered a pest. But Pip doesn’t think they are bad, just scared, and along with her friend Tomas, sets out to discover why.This book will delight young readers who are just discovering fantasy and those that love animals. I enjoyed it even though I’m not the target audience.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    How cute was this book????!!! I listened to it as an audiobook and I am so very disappointed that the rest of the series is not available on audio. But the minute library lending is back up I am grabbing a copy of books 2 and threes. Pip is a girl who can talk to magical creatures. Everyone thinks she is just making it up. However, she will need her skill to save a few “pests”, and get an anxious unicorn to find his bravery. Loved everything about this book. Can't wait to listen to it again.#BBRC #coverchange#Betthebacklist#SummerFunJr