February 14th 2023 by Tu Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
It's 1962, and Winna Cole's mother is very ill with a lung condition. Because she's in the hospital, Winna and her younger sister, Tupelo, are with their grandparents in Michigan. When Tupelo accidentally breaks Winna's glasses, her grandfather finds a pair in the attic that belonged to her great aunt Estelle. Not only do they help with her vision, but the spectacles help her to see and communicate with ghosts. Her grandfather knows a bit about the magic and tells Winna stories about her ancestors, including her great-great-great-grandmother Winona, who was an enslaved person. When Winona became pregnant, she fled to the north, hoping to get to Canada but ending up in Michigan. Her son, Key, disappeared when he was very young, and the ghost of Estelle tells Winna that she must reunite Winona with Key in order for a family curse to be broken. Winna has seen first hand how the curse of "not being able to breathe" has affected her family, from her great grandfather's death from tuberculosis to her mother's current problems, which might be caused by her cigarette smoking. To finish out the school year, Winna moves in with her Aunt Pic and her son Benny, and has to deal with racist classmates who give her a lot of problems and call her very offensive names.
Strengths: Shawl is ten years older than I am, so includes many good details about life in 1962, from Kool-Aid and fried chicken draining on grocery bags to the cost of glasses! The family history is absolutely riveting, and the grandfather's stories shed a lot of light on how enslaved people were treated, and also how families tried to keep stories alive through successive generations. While it is always sad to read about how racism was present even among school children, it is also important for young readers to learn about the kind of treatment Black people had to deal with. This is a fast paced and interesting fantasy book with strong historical content that would be an excellent book circle choice.
Weaknesses: This would have been more appealing to me as a straight realistic fiction book like Varian Johnson's 2018 The Parker Inheritance, because the magical element seemed a bit tenuous. However, the magic plays a big role in forcing Winna to contact Key's family, and will entice young readers who might not otherwise pick up a book with a historical mystery, so is an effective device. I did love the shout out to Edward Eager's The Time Garden!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Strong's 2019 Just South of Home or her 2022 Eden's Everdark, or Royce's 2021 Root Magic or Smith's 2015 HooDoo. While those are all set in the South, the Michigan setting of this one was very interesting! The cover somehow put me in mind of Willo Davis Roberts' 1980 The Girl with the Silver Eyes, which was a favorite of my daughter, Picky Reader.
Weaknesses: This would have been more appealing to me as a straight realistic fiction book like Varian Johnson's 2018 The Parker Inheritance, because the magical element seemed a bit tenuous. However, the magic plays a big role in forcing Winna to contact Key's family, and will entice young readers who might not otherwise pick up a book with a historical mystery, so is an effective device. I did love the shout out to Edward Eager's The Time Garden!
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Strong's 2019 Just South of Home or her 2022 Eden's Everdark, or Royce's 2021 Root Magic or Smith's 2015 HooDoo. While those are all set in the South, the Michigan setting of this one was very interesting! The cover somehow put me in mind of Willo Davis Roberts' 1980 The Girl with the Silver Eyes, which was a favorite of my daughter, Picky Reader.
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