User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Atmospheric and all-round-fantastic, a story of twins who discover family magic in their historical setting of South Carolina in the 1960s. Check out my interview with the author on my YouTube channel about 'Root Magic': https://youtu.be/xHiMw_lTgUE
Jez and Jay are twins who have just lost their Gran, and from her death they discover the art of rootwork that their family practices. It protects them from legendary spirits from Gullah folktales, including haints and boo hags. Not only are there dangerous spirits, but the Turners have to keep safe from racial prejudice and rely on each other to see them through.
The atmosphere in this is one of the main reasons I love this book so much. The marshes were painted vividly, and the sensory writing style allowed me to really 'feel' the words and not just read them. This is carried throughout the book and it never let up. So it's safe to say that I fell in love with the writing style and the pictures painted by the author's words. A story that is absolutely gorgeously told.
Jez and Jay are two very strong protagonists. I loved their journey together, from their fighting but also their unity. They act like true siblings and even when they seem to be at odds with each other, there's a great understanding between them too. They're both so similar yet so different and they make decisions that felt refreshing in middle grade. The family dynamic in general just felt so strong and there were so many moments that were rather touching between them.
The way rootwork is integrated into this novel is just beautiful too and by the end of the book, I just didn't want to leave this family. I absolutely adored this book with my whole heart and it really held my interest throughout. There were some turns by the end I didn't really expect and I just found this just one of the best middle grade books I've read.
Rating: really liked it
Excellent fun! I highly recommend. Bonus for a sensitive depiction of Gullah Geechee culture. Loved it.
Rating: really liked it
★ Magical Middle Grade Historical Fiction ★
Reading ROOT MAGIC was such a joy — can I give it more than five stars? The protagonist, 11-year old Jezebel Turner, is a mighty and memorable middle grade heroine. Set in South Carolina in 1963, the story follows Jezebel as she begins to study rootwork, a tradition passed down from her Gullah ancestors. Root magic is misunderstood by many to be something evil, but her Uncle Doc is teaching her the good ways it helps the community. She must use her newly developed powers to save herself and her family from malevolent forces threatening them, and not just otherworldly ones.
There's so much I loved about this book, and Jezebel is such a relatable character. What stood out for me in particular was the message of friendship and discovering it in someone unexpected. The story was suspenseful and creepy at times, which kept me glued to the pages. The ending chapter was so moving, and of course, I was sad to see it end! I would love to read a sequel about Jezebel and her family, and find out what their futures hold. ♥
Rating: really liked it
Root Magic is set in 1963 and follows young Jezebel Turner who is turning 11 and entering sixth grade. While her twin brother Jay has no problems making friends that's not the case for Jez. Her peers who often ostracize her because of her family's connection to root work leaving her to feel inferior and be a bit of a longer. Skipping a grade and starting school with new kids is hard enough especially after the recent passing of her Gran. Now Uncle Doc has also decided Jez and Jay should begin lessons in root work.
This is a beautiful historical novel that portrays Gullah life in the 1960s. I loved that it doesn't shy away from how Black people are treated during that time but also doesn't overly harp on it. This isn't a story that's all gloom and doom. This is a story about a Black family celebrating life, being apart of a community, and carrying on traditions that have been passed down for generations.
I received an arc from the publisher in exchange for honest review
See in depth review
https://womenofcolorreadtoo.blogspot....
Rating: really liked it
When I was a kid, one of my favorite novels was Virginia Hamilton’s The House of Dies Drear. I don’t think I really realized at the time what a novel thing it was. Today, kids would not be particularly shocked to encounter a book that combined the long arm of slavery to the present day alongside a ghost story/treasure ala
Goonies, but in the 1980s it was a standalone in the field. What I particularly loved about it was how atmospheric it was. For me, it was like a really good episode of
The Bloodhound Gang, and I suppose there’s a part of me that’s always looking for that level of spookiness in the children’s books I read. I manage to find it to varying degrees of success. Still, you’d think that someone would be able to tap into that same link between history and chills that Ms. Hamilton did all those years ago. The happy ending to this story is, as you might imagine, that I’ve found such a book.
Root Magic by Eden Royce, isn’t really like anything else out there. A smartly plotted dip into the Gullah-Geechee culture of early 60s rural South Carolina, it manages to weave family, history, and spooky stuff together like a braid.
When Jezebel’s grandmother died, she couldn’t have imagined how it would upend her life. It’s 1963 and Jez lives with her twin brother Jay, her mama, and her uncle Doc Buzzard. Doc’s a rootworker, which is a person skilled in the art of Black folk magic, and for the first time he’s going to train Jez and Jay. All this happens not a moment too soon too. Jez is skipping a grade in school this year, and there’s a mean girl out to get her. Back at home, a dangerous deputy is circling her family, drawing closer and closer to doing some real harm. Soon enough, the root magic becomes more than just Jezebel’s history. It’s the way she’ll be able to tackle demons, real and human, in her own way.
If folks have any sense, they should be begging Ms. Royce to teach a course on the art of the first sentence, the art of the first page, and the art of the first chapter. In this book she nails all three and hard. I mean, just listen to this first sentence: “When Gullah people die, babies in the family get passed over the coffin so the dead person won’t come back from the beyond to take them away.” If the job of a novel is to suck the reader in from the get-go, mission accomplished! The rest of that chapter is a funeral, root magic, a clear-cut explanation of where the story will take place, an introduction to most of the main characters, and the appearance of the villain right at the end. Throw in some beautiful descriptions (“In the heat of late summer, the scent of her bergamot hair pomade was like sweet, sun-hot oranges”) and a foreshadowing of things to come and you’ve got yourself the kind of beginning to a book that I wish we could clone. Or, at the very least, duplicate.
Now when that first sentence ends, you don’t want the reader to glance over the rest of the book and abandon it. So Ms. Royce keeps the action and tension going. When I was a child I didn’t care for books about bullies, and there’s an awful lot of Lettie in this story, that’s for sure. But for all of that, I couldn’t pull away from the text. Why? The sheer quality of the writing, that’s why. What other author could so perfectly describe a creature pulling its skin off like, “when you pull apart two pork ribs that weren’t quite finished cooking yet”? Or a tall man emerging from a car, “unfolding his height like a sheet.” But even better than this is the care with which Royce invokes the marsh. With her help you can practically smell it, to say nothing of feeling it too. She lavishes the setting with such love that it isn’t hard to see how she knows from whence she speaks. The marsh itself becomes a character in its own right, under her pen. Good thing too, since it certainly is key in how the book ends.
Now I’m not going to give anything away when I say that the primary villain of this piece isn’t Lettie, the school bully who makes Jezebel’s life a living Hades, but rather the much more menacing Officer Collins. A lot of time I dislike villains that don’t have any depth to them. And Collins is evil, pure and simple. His racism is his leading characteristic, but a bolt of imaginative cruelty runs through him as well. There isn’t a redeeming bone in his body, and that’s a good thing. What I came to realize while reading
Root Magic was that three-dimensionality is overrated. Collins doesn’t need some deep-seated reason to be awful to this family. It’s early 60s South Carolina and he's a white police officer. It would be strange if he wasn’t causing them grief. Also, if you were to give him a family, maybe a little daughter, that action would completely undercut his ultimate fate. At the beginning of this book I had hoped that he wouldn’t meet a supernatural ending, but then the book managed to go out of its way to earn that conclusion. You don’t come away from this feeling like the finale was earned cheaply either. It’s satisfying and creepy. The best of both worlds.
In her Author’s Note at the end of the book, Eden Royce explains that her great-aunt was a rootworker, while her grandmother didn’t approve of the art. This dichotomy informs the book, showing the tension in the Black community over rootwork. I suspect that most people will compare
Root Magic to The Jumbies since in both cases you have #ownvoices culture and scary stuff mixing and melding within the story. It’s not a bad comparison but
Root Magic stands on its own. A read and a reread yield so many little details and clues that the author has sprinkled around the book (because, honestly, you can’t have a character rip an apple into two pieces with her bare hands and not have that mean something). Like the thick mud of the marsh, kids are going to get sucked into this story and it will NOT let them go. Hand it to the young readers in search of scary thrills, but that also require a full-blooded, artfully written story to go along with their shivers. Potions and powders will prove unnecessary. This book has a magic entirely of its own.
For ages 9-12.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars - This is the kind of middle grade fantasy I love to see. It's completely age appropriate for its target audience while still having well developed writing, characters, and themes to appeal to an adult audience. My heart melted with Jez as she worked to learn rootwork and to make friends... all in all, really lovely story with striking themes
Rating: really liked it
My ultimate hope for this book is that teachers and librarians who are looking for books for their spooky-loving readers will add this book to their shelves.
There's so much history and Gullah culture in Root Magic. Set in South Carolina in 1963, it follows Jezebel, her twin brother Jay, and their family just after the passing of their grandmother. The time has come for Jezebel and Jay to learn about rootwork and discover what they are capable of.
Can we also talk about the disturbing content in middle grade horror, please? People have such misconceptions about MG and YA, and I'm telling you - MG is where the disturbing stuff is at lately!
Root Magic touched on my spookiest fear as a girl. This book would have simultaneously terrified me and captured my heart. Then it went places I didn't know I needed to fear!
Root Magic did feel like a debut novel, but there was
so much depth to it. I loved the characters, the family, the friendships, the emotions, the horrors. It checked all of my middle grade boxes. I'm planning to read a lot of middle grade horror this year, and I'm anxious to see if any of them will be able to top Root Magic.
4.5/5 stars
Rating: really liked it
Absolutely magical.
Rating: really liked it
i had originally picked this book up last year on a whim, and i'm beating my past self up for not having read it sooner!
the emphasis on family bonds and the passing down of knowledge and culture to young generations was so moving, and i loved the relationship between Jezebel and Jay so much (and the sibling relationship between their mom and uncle Doc!)
this is the perfect book to get you out of a reading slump :") my one and only real gripe is i wish the story had been just a liiiiittle bit longer, as some important character relationships felt a bit underdeveloped to me, but overall this was a fantastic read!
Rating: really liked it
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I loved reading “Root Magic.”
There are so many aspects that I appreciated in the tale. Firstly, I loved the timeline. The author nicely connected the characters to what was happening in the 60s in South Carolina. I also loved the beautiful shout-outs she makes to famous poets like Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. Reading about this trivia inspired me to read some of their works. Secondly, I loved the theme of Rootwork and how the author added her touch to the storyline. I loved reading about different cultures and practices, and the concept of Rootwork was fascinating.
Similarly, I also enjoyed the characters and the storylines. Jez and Jay have an excellent sibling relationship, and I thought the author wrote their arguments and bond realistically. The entire family shares a beautiful bond, rich with history and culture. Even Collins made a scary villain and gave me goosebumps when he appeared. On a side note, I loved Doc’s wise dialogues that he imparts on the twins. Honestly, this is one of those books that I could not put down.
However, probably my only criticism of the story was that it was too short. I loved reading this tale a lot, but I wish it had been longer. For instance, I loved Susie and Jez’s friendship, but I felt that we didn’t have many scenes with them together for me to consider them as best friends. It felt like the author tried to fit a LOT of content into this middle-grade gem, and I wished it had been 50-100 pages longer for more details.
Apart from that, “Root Magic” is a beautiful middle-grade novel, with a touch of historical moments and a spice of magic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rating: really liked it
5 stars for the heart that is contained within this book. Not to mention the story, characters, and cultural importance.
Stunning in the richness of culture, practices, and family it depicts with a simplicity that draws from a well of ancestry and stirs memories in this reader of similar wonders and rituals that are shared and the connections that can be made even to those that differ.
Jez and Jay have to navigate a time that is roiling with changes that may usher in opportunities for them but at a cost. The atmosphere churns with emotion and reality as our characters exist in a time and place where they can so easily be violated and harmed, yet the palpablity of their lives vibrates on every page.
Whether it is from the loss of loved ones, the harassment by law enforcement or the recognition of a history that is sustained and nurtured through rootwork and language. Fostering a love for and appreciation of our histories and culture is the foundation from which our children and us will be able to build up our self-love and truly understand what magic we hope and are.
Root Magic is another stellar addition to the beauty of a canon made up of writers who are members of a community and have intimate experiences which only they can relate in a voice that immerses the reader in their world. It is the result of a voice weaving a story that is inherently theirs.
Growing up we were exposed to the healing power of herbs and roots, to the ever present connectivity between spirits and the living (our mother has told us of encounters with siblings, a nephew, and the infamous ol' higue). Reading about the Gullah Geechee and their practices has just imprinted upon us, even more, the depth of the bonds we share as we strive to keep what our ancestors fought to keep, centuries later.
Rating: really liked it
I LOVED THIS BOOK! This book is so, so good. I feel like this was a story that needed to be told. It's raw, hurtful, empowering, so many things. It is a YA book but that never slowed me down for one second. It's the story of twins Jezebel and Jay learning root magic from their uncle, Doc Buzzard. Their Grandmother has just passed away and it's time for the 2 to learn how to protect the family. It's 1963 in South Carolina. The local sheriff is terrorizing Jezebel's community. This story reveals the hardships of growing up in these times, the struggle of trying to keep your heritage alive, how some people will avoid the root workers in the day but be knocking on their door for help in the cover of the night, how others viewed the root workers as beacons of hope and protection. There is a lot in this book. If you have an interest in root work, you SHOULD read and BUY this book. Thank you so much Eden Royce for telling this story. Thank you to my library for purchasing this book so others may discover it's magic.
Rating: really liked it
I really enjoyed this book. It was so so magical. Literally. I loved the Root Magic being taught and practiced. It felt so much more truthful than other magic based kids books.. I also loved how the author added in history and important topics throughout the book. It felt more meaningful and honest. The representation and diversity was powerful to me. We need more of this! I think any child who is interested in magic would love this read. I’m glad I was able to read it.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Rating: really liked it
Set in 1960s South Carolina, this story follows 11 year old Jezebel ‘Jez’ Turner, who is starting sixth grade. But, she does so without her twin brother Jay since she skipped a grade.
Jez quickly finds herself the constant subject of ridicule thanks to her family’s connection to root work. Following the death of Jez’s grandmother, Jez’s Uncle Doc decides it’s time for the twins to learn root work and their family history.
This story beautifully tells the rich history of Gullah Geechee culture, which I have yet to experience for this target audience. While this book does not shy away from the discrimination that Black folks faced during the 1960s, this story really focuses on family, love, and a dash of Black girl magic.
I loved Jez’s story and found myself rooting for her from beginning to end. This was such a fantastic story of self discovery.
Thank you to HarperCollins for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
Rating: really liked it
I got to p. 76. Far enough to know that I do recommend this to the right audience. I am not that audience, though, sorry.
