August 22, 2022
In this Amalfi Coast–set adventure steeped in Italian culture and folklore, Cannistra (The Trouble with Shooting Stars) introduces readers to a stubborn heroine determined to embrace her true strengths. Giada Bellantuono, nearly 13, is in training to become a guaritrice—an Italian witch specializing in the art of magical healing. But unlike the rest of her renowned streghe family, Giada doesn’t want to serve the god Apollo and heal people, nor undertake a looming apprenticeship. Instead, she feels drawn to Diana, goddess of wild animals, and to healing creatures “ordinary and extraordinary,” like the baby gryphon she finds. When Giada spills salt and olive oil, and wishes that her esteemed 16-year-old brother Rocco would disappear, he is kidnapped by the Streghe del Malocchio—witches who can “sniff out a person’s bad luck.” To rescue him, Giada and her new feline familiar, black cat Sinistro, must journey to Malafi, the witches’ underground city, and accomplish an impossible task. Via a world where magic and modern medicine coexist, and a secret spell-casting community lives undetected year-round, Cannistra writes a compassionate quest that interrogates tradition, legacy, and humans’ effect on the natural world. Ages 8–12. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary.
September 1, 2022
Fly into a magical world of mythical creatures and captured moonlight. Among streghe, or witches, Giada's family has been known for generations as the most innovative of the healers called guaritori. Rocco, her 16-year-old brother, is even somewhat of a prodigy. But 12-year-old Giada wants to do something slightly different with her magic--she wants to be a healer of animals, both the mundane kind and the fantastical. She recognizes the benefit in cultivating relationships with these creatures to collect powerful ingredients, like gryphon feathers or spider silk. Before she can confront her traditionalist family with this news, her parents are called away. There's also a bunch of bad luck omens that keep appearing, but Giada tries to brush such things off as superstitions. Then, a black cat starts following her around, and worse, her brother disappears. Now it's up to Giada to rescue Rocco from some not-so-helpful streghe. Set on the Amalfi Coast and steeped in traditional Italian folklore and mythology and Christian influences, this story features a young magic user coming into her own. Though self-admittedly stubborn at times, Giada is very talented, tries her best, and has supportive friends (both human and animal) to aid her quest. The body-positive portrayal of Giada shows a tween girl proud of her fat body. Cannistra's entertaining narrative features wonderful descriptions of places and events that will transport readers. Stupenda! (Fantasy. 8-13)
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October 1, 2022
Grades 4-7 Giada is nearly 13--nearly old enough to take the oath of a magical healer of humans, as most in her family have done for generations. But Giada doesn't want to heal humans. She's happier caring for animals, including the magical ones around their coastal Italian city of Positano, and that's what she decides to do. But before she can tell her parents, her brother is kidnapped by malevolent witches and spirited away to their eerie underground city. It becomes clear that Giada is the only one who can get him back, though she will have to draw on all her magic and animal friendships to do so. Cannistra's wonderfully engrossing and atmospheric story is replete with intriguing Italian folklore, locations, and language (all witches are "streghe," the healers "guaritori"). Giada is a joy to befriend; she's aware of her shortcomings but also confident in her magic, and she unapologetically delights in her fat body and all that it's capable of. It's worth a trip to this enchanting (and enchanted) Italian coast.
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