The Glitter Trap by Barbara Brauner and James Iver Mattson, illustrated by Abigail Halpin

Lacey Unger-Ware (yes, her real name) is in for a boatload of trouble when popular girl Paige Harrington's fairy godmother, Katarina, gets trapped in Lacey's hair.  With Katarina out of commission, Lacey has to take over Katarina's fairy godmother duties and get Paige her heart's desire.  If she doesn't, Lacey's heart's desire will never come true either!

Poor Lacey.  What were her parents thinking?  Bad enough to hyphenate Unger-Ware, but then to name their child Lacey?  Terrible.  Lacey was a fun character.  She's not popular, but she's also not a loner or desperate to become popular.  She's a bit intimidated by the popular kids, but she's got a great best friend, Sunny, and seems a pretty happy, well-adjusted kid, despite getting teased about her name.  She's got a great family.  Her parents are warm and supportive and has an adorable/annoying little sister.

Paige just came to Lacey's middle school that year, but is already the most popular girl in the class, and one of the kids who calls Lacey "underwear girl."  Lacey doesn't know much about Paige, just that she's pretty and popular and seems to have a personal spotlight shinning on her wherever she goes, while Lacey feels awkward and, well, like a middle school kid!

Spoilers

This was a short and sweet book.  A nice story about nice kids.  Nothing really bad happens (aside from a bout of food poisoning), no one is ever in danger, there's no mushy stuff (although Lacey does have a bit of a crush on someone).  Lacey thought that Paige's heart's desire was to be the lead in the school musical.  But it turns out that's not really what Paige wanted.  Paige wanted to be the lead in the school musical because she thought if she was, her father would have to come and see her, and what Paige really wanted was for her father to pay attention to her again and feel like he loved and cared about her.  Of course, it all ended well.  Paige's father realized the error of his ways, and everyone ended up as best friends.

It was a good mix of funny, cute, and gross.  Lacey wants to be a veterinarian, so when she's in danger of losing her heart's desire, animals start hating her.  Pigeons poop on her head, dogs bark at her, she's not even safe from adorable chicks and bunnies in petting zoos.  All the kids in the musical get food poisoning from the drama director's protein shakes and are throwing up in the bushes.  It has warm and fuzzy family time.  It had Lacey getting into all kinds of trouble as she tries to cast spells.  It has the drama of getting a bad haircut.  It really has everything a younger middle school kid could want.