Accustomed to being the best speller at Miss Poof's witch school, Abby Cadabra is taken aback when new girl Wanda Cassandra arrives, and reveals that she was spelling champion at her old school. The girls become instant rivals and enemies, and face off in the next spelling bee, which involves spelling each word right, explaining the rules of spelling that govern it, and then using it in a magic spell. The competition goes on and on, until finally both girls falter, when spelling the compound word 'broomstick.' Can they work together, to get it right...?

Both entertaining and educational, Abby Cadabra, Super Speller is part of Grosset & Dunlap's All Aboard Reading series for beginning readers, and is intended for children in grades 1-3. The story itself is full of witchy fun, and imparts a message about learning to get along with newcomers, and to work as part of a team. Various rules of spelling are incorporated naturally into the story, offering lighthearted explanations for young children regarding the often complex nature of English orthography. The accompanying artwork is cute and colorful, accentuating the magical goings-on in the story. Recommended to beginning readers who enjoy witchy fare, and/or who struggle with their spelling. ( )

I liked this book because it included a lot of fun sayings to help remember spelling rules. The characters in the book are student witches so they say the spelling rules like they would say a spell. On page 19 Abby said, “Sometimes two letters make just one sound, like in words where the letters CH are found.” The “spell” is said in a rhyme making it easy to remember. Another example of this is on page 24 when Abby said, “Add S to most words to show two or more. One frog, two frogs, three frogs, four!”
I also liked this book because it provided a good example of teamwork. In the beginning of the book Abby and Wanda are competing against each other in the spelling contest. At the end of the book though they decide to work together to spell a compound word. The two girls put their knowledge together to find the correct spelling. Abby said, “I know how to spell broom,” the Wanda said, “And I know how to spell stick”. “Let’s put them together,” Abby said next. When the girls worked together they were able to spell the word “broomstick” correctly and win the spelling bee together.
I think that the main idea for this book is that it is always good to work together and use teamwork. Individually neither Abby nor Wanda could spell "broomstick" correctly, but when they worked together on it they were able to achieve the task. They ended up winning the spelling bee because the were able to work together to find the answer. ( )