Bree Boyd is a Legend

Johnson, Leah. Bree Boyd is a Legend (Ellie Engle #2)

March 4, 2025 by Disney Hyperion

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Bree, who is best friends with Ellie, Abby, and Sammy, is a good speller, and works hard at this because her older sisters, Lex and Chris, are good at everything else. Her father, who used to be a college professor before he got into politics, is very proud of her abilities and expects her to win all of the spelling bees she enters. He has even enlisted the school counselor, Carrie, to tutor Bree. The father is very determined that all of his daughters will work twice as hard as everyone else, even though the saying goes that they might only get half as far because of the challenges Black people face. After the power goes out and Bree gets shocked trying to reseat the breaker, she develops telekinesis, which doesn't work to her advantage as much as you might think. She tells her friends about this, and they understand, especially since Ellie has the ability to reanimate the dead. Because Abby wants to perform in the talent show but every group needs at least four people, Bree agrees to perform, even though her father thinks it is a waste of her time. Her father's strict guidelines are further shattered when Chris comes home from law school with a tattooed finace who works as a floral designer. Bree participates in an exhibition spelling bee, and Carrie tries to get her to get "out of her head" by suggesting she answer as if she were different animals. It's fun, but spelling still is not what Bree really wants to do. When the final bee is on the same day as the talent show, will she have to do what her father wants, or will she be able to be there for her friends?
Strengths: It's good to see middle grade characters who have interests, and I can't think of many other books where the protagonist is interested in spelling competitions other than Blakemore's The Friendship Riddle or Seltzer's 2009 I Put a Spell on You. Bree's family is high acchieving, and the father is very invested in their success, even if he is less invested in taking care of them. Bonus points to Ms. Johnson for not killing off the mother, but having her just leave the family. It was also good to see Bree finally make up her own mind about what she wanted to do, preferring to hang out with her friends and have fun. I'm curious to see if Abby and Sammy get their own books. 
Weaknesses: While this is definitely on trend as far as current mental health practices are concerned, it's hard for me to get my head around children not listening to their parents. No matter how unreasonable my parents were, I would never have contradicted them, and certainly family therapy wasn't something that would ever have been considered. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like magical powers set against a background of reality, similar to Baptiste's Moko Magic or Ireland's Emma and the Love Spell.