The Magic of Magnolia Moon
Edwina Wyatt
Series: Magnolia Moon
Publication Date:
6 Oct. 2021
Format:
Hardback
ISBN 9781760652722
For Magnolia Moon, magic is a way to solve problems. And when you're starting a new class at school and your best friend doesn't live across the road anymore, problems seem to come easily.
In her latest adventure, Magnolia Moon invents everyday magic to help her navigate the pitfalls of friendship, school, family, and being ten. A lyrical and imaginative tale which highlights everyday wonders through Magnolia's curious and observant nature.
In her latest adventure, Magnolia Moon invents everyday magic to help her navigate the pitfalls of friendship, school, family, and being ten. A lyrical and imaginative tale which highlights everyday wonders through Magnolia's curious and observant nature.
Information
Book Type: Junior ChapterAge Group: 7 years +
Traffic Lights: Amber
Class Novel: No
Good Reads Rating: 5/5
Literary Rating: 5/5
Review
Magnolia Moon lives in a world filled with wonder and imagination, jet-fuelled by her love of fairy tales. For Magnolia, a dog looking you in the eye is magic. So is eating a buttery hot potato after a bad day, until all your problems melt away. Magnolia also knows that magic is for sharing, although that isn't as easy as it used to be, since her best friend Imogen May moved away.
Starting Year 5 with a new teacher (Miss Mackerel) and no best friend is a little daunting, even for Magnolia. She's also fairly sure Miss Mackerel must be a witch, since she has a broom propped up against the wall inside the classroom, and a picture of a black cat on her desk. This idea captures her imagination so much, that Magnolia can't resist the lure of the broom, and rides it through school imagining she herself is a witch in a fairy tale, a fun game until she snags her dress on some thorns and tears her dress almost in half.
Thankfully Miss Mackerel isn't beyond enjoying the world of imagination herself and she rescues Magnolia by pulling together a cape and a few bits and pieces to create a witch's costume that covers Magnolia's torn dress so she can join the class. Magnolia the imaginary witch even has a black cat, as one of her classmates is already in costume, after a painting escapade resulted in him needing some replacement clothes!
When Imogen May comes to visit, Magnolia tells her she wishes she could be invisible (because of the fun she would have). But Imogen May knows what it feels like to be invisible, given her new classmates pretend she isn't there. There's nothing fun about that kind of invisibility. Magnolia is certain she can fix the problem by creating a "potion' from the herbs in the garden. It solves the problem, but not quite as Magnolia thought it would--the smell is so bad Imogen May's new classmates can't possibly ignore her (plus she had to go to sick bay to deal with the resulting rash!). However in the process Imogen May made a new friend--another girl who was feeling invisible and alone.
When a new family moves into Imogen May's old house in Magnolia's street, she is surprised to recognise Reuben, the boy she thinks of as an angel based on the way he used to fly with such joy around the school playground (see The Secrets of Magnolia Moon). Reuben is now in high school, so they haven't seen each other for some time. Magnolia is sad to see that Reuben seems to have lost his magic. It is as if the joy has drained right out of him. Reuben tells Magnolia that his parents broke up and his dad now has a new girlfriend. It's clear to her that his heart is broken.
After being teased by her classmate Peggy--because supposedly all that fairy tale reading and imagination is only for little kid--Magnolia struggles to retain her magic. After making a list of all the magical things in life--real and imagined--she realises the actual issue is that Peggy didn't know that magic isn't just about made up beasts, castles and peas hidden beneath mattresses. "She had lost her imagination, just like Reuben had lost his wings." Real magic was the stuff you couldn't see, like "...true love and kindness. Forgiveness, bravery and second chances. They were the bits that Magnolia loved best of all..."
In that moment, a light bulb switches on and Magnolia posts her list of the magic in the world to Reuben. The next time she goes to his house, she finds a boy with bare feet and stardust in his eyes, perched in the top of the Wishing Tree ... He has found his way through the darkness and back to himself.
This is a very beautiful book, with an endearing protagonist who reminds us of the joy that childhood imagination brings and the reality that magic really is all around us--if only we know how to look for it.
Favourite quote: "It was a kind of magic. How the things that you really needed found you anyway, without you even knowing it . A quiet, slow sort of magic that happened in between the wanting and the getting. It was Creeping Magic. Magic that happened gradually and tiptoed past without you even realising. Like how spring crept in after winter, proving that new life was all around you, even when the ground looked bare." (p112-3)
Themes
imagination, fairy-tales, Greek myths, friendship, divorce, grief, love, kindness magic, beauty, making new friends, adventures
Content Notes
The idea of witches of all different types (fairy tale style - kind witches evil witches, witches pretending to be queens etc. etc.) and the idea her teacher could be one of them features strongly in Magnolia's return to school, but it is completely imaginary and to some extent reflects her anxiety at having a new teacher (p41-42). 2. Fuelled by her imagination, at one point Magnolia thinks that life's coincidences mean she can tell the future, and/or has psychic powers like sorcerers or fortune tellers with crystal balls do in fairy tales. Again, this is all completely imaginary (p20-21).
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