There Flies the Witch

April 15, 2023
A girl seeks a sense of belonging and the truth about her identity. Red, whose real name is Janneke, lives with her mother, Yakaka. Yakaka is a witch, and she and Red spend their days healing the earth with Yakaka's stories. Red is uncertain about her real connection to Yakaka and about her own past, the only clue to which is "a dreadful dream" that returns every night. Although they both have brown skin, mother and daughter otherwise do not resemble each other; Red also does not have wings or possess magic like her mother, and she is not satisfied with Yakaka's explanations for why this is. One day, while flying over the sea, Red clinging to Yakaka's back, they crash, washing ashore on an island they've never seen before. Yakaka abandons Red there, but she meets Rubos, a boy who brings her home to his mother. There begins Red's journey to uncovering who she really is. Paasewe-Valchev's elliptical prose effectively conveys Red's thoughts and feelings: "Feel my chest pounding. Feel my legs shaking. I need to get back to the dunes before Yakaka leaves without me." The descriptions of the setting evoke a faraway land, both idyllic in its natural beauty and containing lurking dangers and existing outside of time in a way reminiscent of folklore. Red's story expands on themes of family, love, self-identity, forgiveness, and growth in this novel that will appeal to sophisticated readers. A dreamy story that reads like an extended folktale. (Fantasy. 9-13)

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May 1, 2023
Grades 6-8 Red wonders if she has the same strength as her mentor, Yakaka, a witch who flies worldwide, mending rain forests and tending troubled valleys. Yet strength is all Red has left when an accident separates her from Yakaka and she's saved by a family who lives alone near the sea. As she tries to practice her magic, parts of Red's past return, changing her relationship with Yakaka. If her mentor comes back, will Red follow and abandon her new family? This is a powerful story about forgiveness and healing. The grand adventure is found not in finding a mystical purpose nor defeating an evil king, but in a girl who learns to write her story. Red's new family provides the hope her character needs, building cathartic moments despite disasters like a rising storm and buried secrets. Storms can end, family can find each other, and stories create the strongest magic. For readers who are fans of quiet adventures and (literal) magical storytelling, this is one to hold near your heart.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 8, 2023
Red, a tween with brown skin, seeks to uncover the origins of her past in this literary read by Paasewe-Valchev (The Leopard Behind the Moon). Red’s mother Yakaka, a powerful witch, travels the world with majestic wings, using magic to mend ecological disasters. Red accompanies her safely on her back, all the while struggling to understand who she really is, since she doesn’t have innate powers or wings like her mother. Red believes that her recurring nightmare, in which she’s alone in an empty, foggy field, holds clues “about who I truthfully am.” But Yakaka insists she focus instead on tapping into her magic. After Red and Yakaka suddenly fall out of the sky and into the ocean, Yakaka abandons Red on an unfamiliar beach where she meets a boy who suggests she stay with him and his mother. As Red settles in with the family she still wonders: where did Yakaka go and why did she leave Red here? Through Red’s mesmeric narration, rendered in lilting prose, Paasewe-Valchev crafts an imaginative story that feels at once otherworldly and inherently grounded in familiar themes of family, forgiveness, and self-discovery. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Megibow, KT Literary.