Like Magic

Reviewed by: Carla McAllister - New Gloucester Public Library, New Gloucester, Maine, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 14, 2017

Review

This delightful middle-school story is told in alternating chapters by three ten-year-old girls, Jada, Malia and Grace, each of whom is dealing with challenging family issues. With each girl struggling with varied problems, the author delves into many different topics. Jada has been made to move from her home town where her beloved Grandma has been a huge part of her life while also wondering why her mother abandoned her and her father when she was just two years old. Grace’s best friend has moved away, her parents are busy with their careers, and she suffers from anxiety so intense that she finds it difficult to even carry on the simplest of conversations. Malia is feeling displaced and redundant as her parents welcome a tiny new baby girl. Will they even need her anymore? The girls’ lives become intertwined through the intervention of a lovely, wrinkly, wispy-haired public librarian named Hazel. She loans each of the girls an elaborate, locked treasure box which looks somewhat like a book which was left in the lost and found. Each girl leaves something in the box for the next borrower (music, poetry, drawings) and, somehow, magically (?) the item each girl finds turns out to be exactly what she needs to move forward in a positive way. In a heartwarming climax, the girls achieve friendship because of the wonderful treasure box and the help of Hazel the librarian.

Overall Book Score: very good