Root Magic
Root Magic begins with eleven-year-old Jezebel Turner at her grandmother’s burial in 1963 in the marshy South Carolina Lowcountry, along with her twin, Jay, her mother, and her uncle. The Turners are Gullah, keeping alive the root magic their ancestors brought with them from Africa. That’s fine for Jay, who has plenty of friends at school. For Jez, it’s one more source of being teased. Yet both twins are eager to learn the magic: After all, what middle-school student wouldn’t want to learn magic? Jez in particular has a knack, and as her family is threatened by a racist policeman and strange and threatening incidents, it seems she may need the spells her uncle is teaching.
The Gullah Lowcountry is a perfect setting for this excellent middle-school novel of fantasy and history. Royce introduces magical elements bit by bit, each one believably building on the last—so believably, in fact, that I had no problem believing in the ghostly haints or vampirish boo hag. I was slightly skeptical about a non-racist and decent white sheriff, and I wish there hadn’t been any mention of animal sacrifice.
Still, Jez is a strong and smart protagonist, and her relationship with her brother is alive and well drawn. I stayed up late on a work night reading this book to its end and plan to send it to my middle-school grandchildren.
