magic | Book Girl & Little Bear

Greenwild: The City Beyond the Sea by Pari Thomson

Iffenwild is a wondrous city, part of the Marin Deep, with blue water magic. It’s only a legend to those in the Greenwild, first introduced in Greenwild: The World Behind the Door. Botanists in Amazeria are in danger, and want the Greenwilders to come with help from Iffenwild.

Daisy, the Prof, and Indigo travel to the Moonmarket and sneak onto the Nautilus, one of four theater ships headed to Iffenwild to perform for the city residents and their duchess. Also on board is Max, who’s been ill most of his life and was recently kidnapped by the Grim Reapers. Max and Daisy clash; they have similar personalities. Daisy’s cat, Napoleon, is a help and a comfort, as is Indigo’s parakeet. Daisy struggles to control her green magic, while Max is recovering his strength and secretly learning how to swim. Max, in disguise, gets a walk on role in the Nautilus company’s play, and spends time in a storeroom with a magical memory tree.

The theater, ships, water horses and the land/sea combination of Iffenwild enchant. While dark in parts, this page turning middle grade fantasy novel is a very satisfying read. The depiction and use of magic here is delightful. Some people have power with plants or water, there are magical animals, and there are magical fruits, seeds, leaves, and vines. Excellent! A sequel, The Forest in the Sky, is expected next summer.

Brenda

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Dark, with marvelous storytelling, this fantasy novel is decidedly NOT cozy, and not recommended for bedtime reading. It is also very unlike the Temeraire series by Novik in which Temeraire is a dragon bonded to a naval captain in the Napoleonic Wars. Her book Spinning Silver is probably a good readalike, but I haven’t read it (yet).

Agnieska grows up in the village of Dvernik, in a valley near the Wood, which is a very scary place. Agnieska’s friend Kasia is beautiful and is sure to be chosen by the Dragon, a wizard named Sarkan, when they are 17. When Agnieska the untidy and untalented is chosen instead, it’s a shock to the village, the girls, and their mothers. Every ten years a girl is chosen from the valley villages, later they have enough education and money to move to the city and be independent.

Agnieska was chosen because she has magic. Her magic isn’t like Sarkan’s, and her first months in the Tower are a struggle. Then Wensa, Kasia’s mother, comes for help. Kasia’s been taken to the Wood. A book of spells by Jaga (aka Baba Yaga) may be helpful.

So, the adventures begin, in the Wood, the Tower, and in the heart of the Kingdom, when the Queen comes out of the wood. Kasia and Agnieska, plus a little prince and princess, are the heart of this compelling, spellbinding story.

Brenda