Category: Magical Realism

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan

10/8/2018

When her mother commits suicide, Leigh's world shatters. In the depths of her grief, Leigh believes her mother has been transformed into an enormous red bird who talks to her and brings her clues.
Trying to put together the pieces of her mother's mysterious early life, Leigh travels to Taiwan to meet her mother's parents, grandparents she has never known and with whom her mother cut off contact after marrying an American and moving to the USA.
Leigh's present is interwoven with her mother's (and her own) flashback memories to create a bold book full of ghosts, art, culture, and color.

This magical realism-tinged novel that bursts with art and color sheds light on depression and captures the dark corners of grief and the feeling of being pulled between two worlds -- culturally, linguistically, generationally, and romantically.

Grades 9-12

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The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

5/17/2016

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The Paloma and Corbeau families are traveling performers who have been rivals and enemies for years.
They believe that a Corbeau touching a Paloma, or vice versa, could lead to death – but that doesn’t stop Luc “Cluck” Corbeau from saving Lace Paloma’s life during an environmental disaster.
Lace’s growing attraction to Cluck has her questioning their families complicated history as well as her future.

The magical realism and the Romeo and Juliet romance are a winning combination. I also enjoyed how the book takes place in an imaginary central valley town but names other nearby real places (hello Hanford!).

Grades 8-12

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book reviews

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan

The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore

Ms. Wheaton

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