I’ve been reading a lot this summer. Stay tuned for more reviews.

Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland. Balzer + Bray an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2022 New York, NY.

YA

It’s 1937. FDR is President. There is a blight across the land. But wait—the Depression is somewhat different in this universe.

“At the Urging of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and with the approval of Congress, the Department of the Interior’s Mechomancy Division and the Bureau of the Arcane today announced a collaboration to remediate the scourge of environmental blights throughout the United States.”

In this alternate universe, the Depression is the “Great Rust” and the world is ruled by magic. Peregrine, a new apprentice in the Arcane’s Conservation Core, Colored Auxiliary, discovers her full potential as a mage. The Colored Auxiliary is blamed for the “Great Rust” and so they are sent to remedy it: a dangerous undertaking. This is the JimCrow era and the Auxiliary is considered expendable.

The plot of Rust is fascinating, as Ireland creates a clever story that parallels the Great Depression and racism while weaving magic throughout.

I assume this is Young Adult mainly because the complicated plot involves so much U.S. history that most Middle Grade kids wouldn’t have yet learned, but it’s a great read for any age.

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar. Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA, 2016

MG

Family secrets abound in this middle-grade fantasy that deals sensitively with dementia. The main rule, which Carol’s father has stressed over and over again, is to not upset Grandpa, and this means never mentioning Rosa, Carol’s Grandma, and Grandpa’s long-deceased wife. Carol is dreading the summer at his ranch in the most desolate, drought parched, area of New Mexico. She’s never met Grandpa Serge, because of some falling out her dad had with him. When she finally meets him, he calls her Rosa. Often throughout the story he gets her confused with his dead wife, but when he’s more lucid, he calls her Carolina, pronounced Caroleena and urges her to be proud of her heritage.

Bees are a significant character in the story as Grandpa keeps saying when the bees return the lake will return. Everyone thinks this is foolish because logically, it’s just the opposite: the bees may come back if it ever rains again.

But Grandpa’s faith in the bees is unshakable and when Carol is the only family member that is being followed around by bees, she begins to wonder if Grandpa’s stories about a lake, a magical tree and people who lived forever might be true.

Hour of Bees is a sensitive portrayal of dementia and how story-telling can open doors to a profound communication that can certainly feel magical.