Published by Henry Holt & Co.

Summary:  Samantha and her older sister Caitlin have recently been moved from their parents’ home to live with their Aunt Vicky and her wife Hannah.  Although the reason is unclear at first, it has to do with Caitlin’s broken arm.  Caitlin seems happy to be there, but Sam misses her parents and her best friend and wants to go home.  When Aunt Vicky gives Sam her favorite card game, A Game of Fox & Squirrels, the characters begin to come to life for her.  Ashander the fox is charming and handsome, and promises her he’ll get her home if she can successfully complete a series of challenges before the next full moon.  Maple, Birch, and Cedar are three squirrels who help and encourage her.  Sam is eager to do what Ashander asks, but as the challenges continue, his rules start to change, and he begins to show a more frightening side.  Before long, Sam is in over her head, and isn’t sure where she belongs.  Aunt Vicky and Hannah are kind, and between bouts of homesickness, she starts to recall more troubling aspects of her life at home.  Ashander still holds out the promise of home, but is Sam willing to pay the price he is demanding?  224 pages; grades 5-8.

Pros:  This seems to be the year for books that examine child abuse, and this one does it in a way that blends fantasy with reality.  Sam starts to see her father’s traits in Ashander, with just the right amount of tension bordering on horror.  I hope this will be considered for some awards.

Cons:  There’s a lot of inferencing required to understand what has happened to Sam and Caitlin; that along with the blurry line between reality and fantasy may be confusing for some readers.

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Published by Scholastic

Summary:  Princess Shuri, sister of T’Challa the Black Panther, is gifted in all things technological and wants to use her talents to help Wakanda.  She feels that her mother and brother don’t appreciate her and treat her like a child.  So when she discovers that the powerful heart-shaped herb is dying, then has a vision of an evil invading Wakanda, she feels compelled to act.  When her family doesn’t take her warnings seriously, Shuri takes matters into her own hands, escaping with her friend and protector K’Marah to travel to Kenya and London in search of assistance.  Their return to Wakanda coincides with the invasion, and Shuri is able to use some of her innovative technology to stop it and to show her family what she is capable of.  272 pages; grades 4-8.

Pros:  My experience with another middle grade Black Panther novel makes me pretty confident that this will be an easy sell.  It’s an action-packed ride with a strong, smart girl protagonist, and characters that may be familiar to readers from the movie or comic books.

Cons:  The queen seemed unnecessarily obnoxious to her daughter, not appreciating Shuri’s considerable gifts, and focusing too much on her clothes and social skills.

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Published by HMH Books for Young Readers

Summary:  Amelia Jones has always dreamed of attending The Mystwick School of Musicraft where her late mother became a maestro.  Amelia is a flutist who has studied musicraft with some local teachers, but is ill-prepared for the big time and bungles her audition to the school.  She’s shocked a few weeks later when she gets an acceptance letter.  But when she arrives at Mystwick, she discovers the letter was an error–it was intended for a different Amelia Jones, a piano prodigy who died the previous summer under somewhat mysterious circumstances.  Our Amelia is about to be sent packing, when the teachers discover a nifty bit of magic she inadvertently performed on the school grounds.  They decide to give her two months to get her magic up to speed, at which time she’ll have to audition again to stay for good.  Amelia is determined to work hard, but when the ghost of the other Amelia Jones seems equally determined to see her fail, it becomes more and more difficult for her to believe that she really belongs at Mystwick.  368 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  Harry Potter fans will enjoy this fun tale of a school where kids learn to use their musical talents to do magic.  There are plenty of plot twists and supernatural events to keep kids turning the pages, and the end seems to make a sequel inevitable.  I enjoyed listening to the Audible version of this which is free, along with quite a few other books: check out their site for details.

Cons:  Granted, Amelia had plenty of reasons to doubt her talents, but I got tired of her constant “maybe I just don’t belong here” refrain.

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Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  When Cal and his friend Drew see a bunch of coins walking toward a girl in their class named Modesty, they want to know more.  It seems as though Modesty is practicing magic, but when they get their hands on her book of spells, it’s not much.  They can make a few of the more mundane spells work for one minute at a time during five minutes of the day…or night, in a few cases.  What Cal wants most is to find a spell that will repair the expensive harvester he accidentally set on fire and to help save the family farm from the inventor who has found a way to create vegetables with a 3-D printer.  When a portal opens up into another world, the three kids find themselves in the midst of an effort to save that world from global cooling–with the help of a green-skinned kid librarian named Preface (Pre for short).  When Drew accidentally gets trapped in the other world, and Pre ends up back with Cal and Modesty, it’s up to the kids to save Drew, save the farm, and quite possibly save the world.  352 pages; grades 3-7.

Pros:  Fun doesn’t begin to describe this madcap magic adventure with an intriguing parallel universe, clever wordplay, and a few zings about fake news, corrupt leaders, and climate change deniers.  The adventures and laughs never stop; this will be an easy book to promote for summer reading.

Cons:  I’d love to see more of Cal, Drew, Modesty, and Pre, but everything wrapped up so neatly, I fear there will be no sequel.

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Published by HarperCollins

Summary:  Cordelia leads a happy, if somewhat sheltered life, with her father in a reimagined Victorian/Edwardian Boston, capturing and caring for monsters.  Her mother was also involved in this work until she disappeared in the jungles of Brazil.  When Cordelia wakes up one morning to find her father and most of the monsters gone, she finds herself on an unlikely journey to try to rescue them.  Assisted by an orphan named Gregory, whom she befriends after saving his zuppy (zombie puppy), and her ex-best friend Elizabeth, she travels to New York, Nova Scotia, and Worcester, attempting to track down her father and the monsters.  Along the way, she encounters cruel prejudice against monsters and some humans, and at last learns the fates of both of her parents.  She and her father are reunited, but realize that monsters are not meant to be kept in cages (or houses) and ultimately decide to let them go their own ways.  384 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  There’s plenty of adventure for Cordelia and her friends, as well as some interesting monsters, a couple of heartwarming friendship stories, and a timely message about valuing all forms of life.

Cons:  Try as I might, I never found this book as engaging as I was hoping (it got three starred reviews), and the message was repeated just a bit too often.

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Published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Summary:  Fionn and his older sister Tara have been sent to the island of Arranmore to spend time with their grandfather while their mother is dealing with some mental health issues.  Tara has been to the island before and likes to lord her knowledge over Fionn; she often leaves him behind to spend time with her crush Bartley Beasley, who is searching for a secret cave.  As Fionn gets to know his grandfather, he discovers that he is the Storm Keeper, the overseer of the magic on the island. Granddad knows that his time in this role is coming to an end, and that the island is looking to find a new Storm Keeper.  As Fionn learns more about the magic, he starts to use it himself to travel through time and learn more about Arranmore’s secrets. The ending brings about the revelation of the new Storm Keeper and some healing in Fionn’s family, but there are plenty of unanswered questions to explore in book 2.  308 pages; grades 4-7.

Pros:  A promising start to a fantasy series that ably combines magic and everyday life.  Lots of interesting characters and history have been introduced that will provide a good foundation for a sequel.

Cons:  As I was reviewing this book, I realized it was published in 2018.  Since I had to force myself to read it (generally the case with me and fantasy), this was something of a blow.  It looks like it was published in Great Britain in 2018 and in the U.S. in 2019, so that is something of a comfort to me.

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