Book Review: Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream

Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream
Tiffany Elaine
IngramElliot, 2018

Tabby Easterland is a fairly normal kid, until she wakes up on the morning of her twelfth birthday in the body of a twenty-five year old. Shocked by this dramatic turn of events, Tabby and her best friends, Kat and Dolly, set out to solve the mystery of how this change occurred – without anyone finding out that Tabby is no longer Tabby. They hatch a plan to hide Tabby in plain sight, giving her a new identity as Ms. Mulligan and installing her as a teacher in the girls’ school.

Now they can investigate Tabby’s transformation, along with other strange occurrences – like mysterious visions that Tabby can see in mirrors, and a creepy bird that attacks the girls one night. All signs seem to point back to the town where Tabby’s parents met and the evil Black and White sisters, a pair of witches obsessed with Tabby’s missing father. A class trip to that same little town might be just what they need to solve the mystery, but they must be careful – the Black and White sisters are dangerous, the assistant principal suspects something is up, and the fellow teacher that Ms. Mulligan is staying with? There’s something very strange about her too.

This post contains affiliate links. Read more about that here. Thanks to TLC Book Tours for sending me  copy of Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream to review.

If you have a girl in the middle grade age range (8-12) who likes all things mystical, then she will probably enjoy Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream. Full of magic and fantasy elements, this is a fast paced book that will keep kids turning the pages. There is plenty going on between Tabby navigating her new adult world, trying to keep a pretty gigantic secret, and investigating some really strange stuff in an effort to find out what happened to her.

Parents Guide: This book is pretty clean. There is no profanity, minimal violence (ex. the witches need some blood for their potion so they cut Tabby’s arm), and minimal boy/girl relationship (there is a reference to making out, and Tabby has a boyfriend that she pines over because she can’t be in a relationship with him in her grownup body and he doesn’t even know why she disappeared). I would have preferred that there be less boyfriend talk, but overall it wasn’t bad and that’s just a personal opinion. Also note, this book probably will not generally appeal to boys since the protagonists are all female and generally approach life in a very feminine way.

Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream puts a lot of emphasis on friendship. Throughout all the action and magic Tabby counts on her friends to be there for her and Kat and Dolly don’t let her down. There are plenty of antics and mishaps that happen as the three girls try to maintain this big secret and figure out how to reverse it. I thought it was a good touch that it doesn’t take Tabby long to realize that adulthood isn’t all she thought it would be, and what she really wants is to just go back to being twelve.

Overall Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream was cute and funny, with lots of action and mystery that will keep a young reader’s attention. The end sets it up nicely for the sequel, Ms. Mulligan and the Council of Butterflies, which the author is currently working on (I couldn’t find an estimated release date). The author also has a website with some cool bonus features, like a sample chapter and blog posts written in the voices of the characters.

Does this sound like a book your middle-grader would enjoy?