Skip to main content

Like Magic

Image
By


Like Magic
Elaine Vickers
HarperCollins, 2016. 261 p.

Three girls feel unsure and lonely in Salt Lake City. Each girl ends up going to the Salt Lake City Library and meets a librarian who suggests that they each borrow a very special book on friendship. Thus begins a sweet story about how these three girls find out that they are not alone in their feelings or insecurities. Grace has lived in Salt Lake for a long while. Her best friend moved away and now her anxiety won’t allow her to speak to anyone—even though she often wants to. Jada is new to Utah. She and her father moved from New Jersey so that he could start a teaching career at a new school focused on the arts. Jada loves art—but she hates living so far away from her mother, grandmother and everything else she knows. Malia is worried about the upcoming birth of a baby sister. Her mother is on bedrest in the hospital and her father is running around trying to take care of the family business as well as his family. Malia doesn’t know if she can be a good big sister or if her parents will even care about her after this long-awaited baby will arrive.

Vickers weaves the three stories together—readers will know that eventually all three girls will become friends. It just is the only satisfactory ending we would accept. This is a good book for reading and then starting conversations about anxiety, frustrations, or other feelings that often come when life-changing events happen to young girls. Plus it shows that friendships (and libraries and librarians!) are a good way to navigate the crazy experience called life.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five Faves: Mysterious High-Low Intermediate Books

By
Intermediate Mystery books are a gold mine. High-low books refer to titles that are of high interest to readers, but contain low level vocabulary. These titles are clever, action-packed, and have several books in the series to keep the mystery alive. These intermediate mystery books are the first in their series and are sure to appease any mystery loving reader. The Ghost Tree Written by Natasha Deen Illustrated by Lissy Marlin New York: Random House Children's Books, 2022. Intermediate. 95 pages. With a dash of paranormal mixed with mystery, this book introduces Asim, a Guyanese American fourth grader who moves to a new town. After a visit to a graveyard, an evil spirit is unleashed. Asim works with new friends, Rokshar and Max, to save their town. With scarily cool illustrations to accompany this text, this book is great for any amateur sleuths who love a touch of creepy. Detective Duck: The Case of the Strange Splash Written by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver Illustrated by Dan San
Post a Comment
Read more

Display: Dino-mite Reads

By
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs By Mo Willems New York: Balzar + Bray, 2012. Picture Book. "Once upon a time, there were three hungry Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur . . . and a Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway. One day--for no particular reason--they decided to tidy up their house, make the beds, and prepare pudding of varying temperatures. And then--for no particular reason--they decided to go . . . someplace else. They were definitely not setting a trap for some succulent, unsupervised little girl. Definitely not!" --Editor Smart Vs. Strong! Written by Jill Esbaum Illustrated by Miles Thompson New York: Simon Spotlight, 2021. Easy Reader. 64 pages. "When Thunder gets stuck in quicksand, Cluck uses his smarts to free his friend." --Editor How Dinosaurs Went Extinct Written by Ame Dyckman Illustrated by Jennifer Harney New York: Brown and Company, 2023. Picture Book. "When a child in a museum asks how dinosaurs became extinct, Dad co
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Enigma Girls

By
  The Enigma Girls By Candace Fleming New York: Scholastic Focus, 2024. Informational. 371 pages. If you have an interest in little known aspects of history or in World War II in particular, this book is for you. The Enigma Girls tells the story of 10 young women who worked at Station X at Bletchley Park in England helping to break ciphers during World War II. Each of the girls grew up in different circumstances, and thus, each worked at in a different part of Station X cracking codes. The reader learns about how Station X worked through the stories of each of the girls. Whether it was transcribing the Morse code messages that the Germans were sending to their armies or decoding, translating, or paraphrasing messages, each girl had a part to play. The stories of the girls are intermixed with plenty of photographs as well as special chapters about how to decode various types of ciphers. Learning about Station X through the eyes of the girls that worked there helps the reader gain a huma
Post a Comment
Read more