Bayou Magic

Adventure-seeking girls with a taste for mermaids need apply. (Magical realism. 8-12).

Copyright 2015 Kirkus Reviews, LLC Used with permission.

Looking to add diversity to your shelves? Look no further than the fascinating characters that populate Bon Temps and experience the community in which they live.

Copyright 2015 Booklist, LLC Used with permission.

Gr 3-6--Maddy lives with her family in New Orleans. At almost 10, she is the youngest of five girls, and this summer it will be her turn to stay with her grandmother in the bayou. Apprehensive about the visit--her sisters say Grandmere is a witch, whose house has no electricity or indoor plumbing--Maddy is also excited to discover Bon Temps. Soon, Grandmere teaches Maddy about healing herbs and their family history. When Maddy finds that she can call fireflies and see mermaids, Grandmere tells her the story of Mami Wata, the water spirit who accompanied their slave ancestors from Africa. Maddy soon comes to love the wetlands and the residents of Bon Temps, human and otherwise. So when the Gulf oil spill threatens the town, it is Maddy who must use her magic to save her new home. Some sensitive subject matter may be disturbing to younger readers--Maddy's friend has an alcoholic father who inadvertently hurts him and then later dies in the explosion. Maddy is a brave and hopeful heroine, and the descriptions of the bayou are almost as magical as her legacy. VERDICT Hand this to middle grade readers who enjoy family stories, history, and a dose of fanciful magic.--Laurie Slagenwhite Walters, Brighton District Library, Brighton, MI

One summer, nearly-10-year-old Maddy Johnson gets swept up in the mysteries of the Louisiana bayou. She's the youngest of her five sisters and the last to spend a summer with her Grandmere Lavalier, hours from her family's home in New Orleans. Quickly adapting to life in her grandmother's wooden shack, Maddy learns about signs and healing herbs, listens to tales about her ancestors, explores the waters with a boy named Bear, meets other locals (who, like Maddy, are a "stew" of ethnic backgrounds), and thinks she sees a mermaid, the legendary Mami Wata. Grandmere's quiet sadness about the past and worry for the future ("To be a hero, bad things have to happen," she tells Maddy) strike notes of unsettling and suspenseful tension. Readers will be easily drawn into Rhodes's (Sugar) heady descriptions, and as environmental disaster threatens the landscape Maddy has come to love, her heroism shines as she protects the community and recognizes her own strength. Ages 8-12. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (May)