The Award Tally
Root Magic cover

Root Magic

Eden Royce

Root Magic

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Root Magic won the Walter Dean Myers Honor Award for Outstanding Children's Literature and was a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner. It's 1963, and things are changing for Jezebel Turner. Her beloved grandmother has just passed away. The local police deputy won't stop harassing her family. With school integration arriving in South Carolina, Jez and her twin brother, Jay, are about to begin the school year with a bunch of new kids. But the biggest change comes when Jez and Jay turn eleven— and their uncle, Doc, tells them he's going to train them in rootwork. Jez and Jay have always been fascinated by the African American folk magic that has been the legacy of their family for generations—especially the curious potions and powders Doc and Gran would make for the people on their island. But Jez soon finds out that her family's true power goes far beyond small charms and elixirs…and not a moment too soon. Because when evil both natural and supernatural comes to show itself in town, it's going to take every bit of the magic she has inside her to see her through.

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Publisher
Walden Pond Press
Year
2021
ISBN-13
9781799946779
Genre
Young AdultFantasy
Topics
Gullah folk magic and heritageRacism and school integration in the 1960s SouthFamily, grief, and coming of age