Samantha: The Next Chapter and Brittle Magic

Davis Fiona. Samantha: The Next Chapter
October 13, 2026 by American Girl Publishing
Copy provided by the publisher

In 1920, Samantha Parkington has been teaching for three years, but is spending the summer back in Mount Bedford with Grandmary while her aunt Cornelia and Uncle Gard are taking their son to San Francisco. It's good to be back home, and Samantha is working hard on encouraging women to vote. She hopes to eventually attend the teachers' college at Columbia University. When her grandmother suddenly passes away after a brief period of decline, Samantha is shocked to find out from the family lawyer that Grandmary filed a new will just the week before she died, leaving everything (including the house that is supposed to be Samantha's) to the MRB Corporation. Mr. Quigley tells her that he will investigate and work to get the money back, but since Gard won't return her communication, Samantha decides to leave the Chicago area and go to New York City to investigate. The servants are sent to a new neighbor, Mrs. Finley, so they are taken care of. Samantha heads to her friend Agatha's boarding house, which is a good thing, since the little money she had is stolen by street children. She gets a place in the boarding house, and Agatha helps her get a job at the B. Altman department store. Unfortunately, it is the undergarments department that is ruled by the evil Mrs. Holzendorf. While trying to hunt done Mr. Malloy, who is behind the change in the will, Samantha meets Tommy, who works for Malloy's shady business. She also runs into long time family friend Ricky Strickland, who is investigating Malloy for fraud, and says that he will tell his supervisors about Malloy's involvement in defrauding her grandmother. Both men are interested in her, but work keeps Samantha very busy. As her investigation continues, things get increasingly dangerous. Will she be able to retrieve her inheritance?

Strengths: This is a beautiful book, complete with edges sprayed in the same plaid as Samantha's childhood dress, and Davis has written other historical novels for adults. It's always an interesting concept to follow a childhood favorite into adulthood; Naylor's Now I'll Tell You Everything is a more extreme example. It's fun to catch up briefly with the cast of characters from Mount Bedford, and to watch as Samantha takes on challenges of adulthood without the support of her beloved Grandmary. Clearly, Davis is well versed in the books, and loves the characters. There are a lot of good historical details about daily life as well as the politics of the time. Even though this is an adult book, there is nothing that would prevent this from being in a middle school or high school library.
Weaknesses: The audience for this book seems to be adult readers who grew up with American Girl dolls in the 1990s. I haven't had readers for these books for at least fifteen years. The villains in the story are not as nuanced as I would expect for an adult title. 
What I really think: I enjoyed this, and know that there are a lot of women who might have middle grade children themselves who will love this. American Girl seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, with the publication of The Making of American Girl and a rebooting of the dolls. I'm interested to see what further adventures Samantha might have. 

O'Shaughnessy, Kat. Brittle Magic
October 20, 2026 by Knopf Books for Young Reader
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Shiloh Brittle Walker lives with her parents, older sister Judith, twin brother Sammy, and a variety of secrets. The most open one is that everyone in the Brittle clan has a touch of magic. Her mother runs a bakery called Sugarplum, and makes sugar butterflies that fly, and other magical treats, excusing their movement by saying the sugar is engineered. Judith can grow enormous pumpkins, and Sammy can heal plants. Shiloh doesn't have any talent, and her older brother, Jason, who passed away when he was twelve, had a talent that was not discussed. His room remains locked and untouched, and Shiloh's mother will not discuss him. Shiloh keeps trying to discover her own talent, and even visits her Aunt Delilah, who can tell fortunes with pickles. The reading leads her to befriend Isabel, who moves to town with her father. Isabel is homeschooled, but Shiloh insists on visiting her house and hanging out, based on the fortune. She is also increasingly interested in Jason's fate, thinking that knowing about him will help her understand her talent. She's at odds with Sammy because he is hanging out with a classmate who can help him connect to a boy he has a crush on, and the two even sleep in separate rooms because they can't get past their fight. When Shiloh snoops in Jason's room and steals mail addressed to her mother, she uncovers information about Jason's death, and confronts her parents to finally explain it to her and help her make peace with the past. Her mother is so angry that she cancels a big, planned family reunion. Can Shiloh figure out what happened to her brother, and discover her magical talent?

This was a fun book with magical realism that would be great for collections where Stewart, Erin. The Mysterious Magic of Lighthouse Lane, Myracle's Incredibly Penelope, or Cherrywell's The Ink Witch are popular. Younger readers who secretly believe they might have a magical talent will identify with Shiloh and her attempts at finding something that gives her that "maple syrup" warm feeling of being magical. The family dynamics will hold the attention of older readers, especially with the cast of interesting characters and the friendship between Shiloh and Isabel. 

O'Shaughnessy's Lasagna Means I Love You  was quite an interesting read, and her Newbery Honor book, The Wrong Way Home has been VERY popular with my students. The focus on Jason's death made this book a great deal sadder and slower than it could have been, and it was hard to believe that the mother would have kept so many secrets from so many people.