In this standalone novel based on Filipino mythology, Corazon Lopez is looking forward to her eleventh birthday, when she can finally be trained in wielding babaylan magic. She's hoping she can use it to bring her parents back to life so they can be together again.
EARPHONES AWARD WINNER.
Starred review from July 10, 2023
Featuring a Filipina protagonist coming into her powers, Chokshi (the Aru Shah series) writes a memorable spin on a tweenâs looking-glass adventures. Three years after her parentsâ deaths, 11-year-old Corazon Lopez lives with her magically powerful but emotionally distant aunt Tina in a wondrous House âthat tucked her in each evening and made sure she always had a sweater when it got cold.â Like the women in their family, both Corazon and Tina are babaylansâmortals who guard the boundaries between the human and spirit worldsâbut two days before her magic-manifesting 12th birthday, Corazonâs specific power remains unknown even to her. She waits impatiently on the cusp with her wisecracking companion anito, an earth spirit named Saso who resembles a blue lizard, and a soul key that allows her to visit with her parentsâ ghosts each Saturday. She plans to bring them back to life once she gains, and trains in, her powers, but when Corazon and Tina travel through the Library of Mirrors en route to the spirit realmsâ marketplace, a figure pursues Corazon and steals the soul key, and Corazon must work to put the worlds-threatening specter to rest. Filipino folklore and a smart magical system of âbargains and balancesâ thread this wholly original narrative, which employs laugh-out-loud humor, sensory-forward prose, and deliciously dark threats to explore personal identity and tweenhood. Ages 8â12. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary.
