Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble, Book 1
By Jan Carr,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Magically sweet story set in Mexican American family bakery.
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Magical trouble
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What's the Story?
In LOVE SUGAR MAGIC: A DASH OF TROUBLE, Leonora Logroño, known as Leo, is an 11-year-old Mexican American girl who lives in a small town in Texas, the youngest of five sisters. Her family owns the local panadería, and things take a magical turn on the eve of Día de los Muertos when Leo discovers that her mom and sisters are not only baking sweets to celebrate the holiday, they're also cooking up spells. Leo's supposed to wait until she’s 15 to be initiated as a bruja, but she's frustrated that she's excluded, so she steals a book of spells from the bakery and tries her own hand at making magic. Her first attempt, a love spell on a boy at school, goes terribly and comically awry. How will Leo reverse the spell when she has no idea what she's doing?
Is It Any Good?
Mix one spunky Mexican American girl with some sugarcoated magic spells baked up in her family's panadería, and you've got a recipe for a sweet middle grade fantasy. The magic in Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble is harmless. As oldest sister Isabel explains, "Our special family power comes from the magic of sweetness; sweetness from love and sweetness from sugar."
But the real magic in the story is the Mexican American protagonist and family, with traditions that may be distinct, but relationships that are touchingly familiar. Author Anna Meriano gives us a plucky protagonist who's not afraid to bend the rules to teach herself new skills. When she encounters problems, she doesn't run to adults, but puts her mind to solving them herself. Though her dad is present and loving, it's the females in the family who are brujas, passing knowledge and power down from one generation to the next. The story assigns each sister a defining trait (oldest is responsible, next is rebellious, etc.), and the crowded house with one bathroom for five girls feels realistically busy and bustling and warm.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the magic in Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble. Why do you think the family does magic? Why does Leo's magic go awry?
Do the sister relationships in the story feel like your own sibling relationships, or ones you've seen in friends' families?
What special traditions or knowledge does your own family pass from one generation to the next? Do they feel "magical" in any way?
Book Details
- Author: Anna Meriano
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Cooking and Baking, Magic and Fantasy, Great Girl Role Models
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Walden Pond Press
- Publication date: January 2, 2018
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 320
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Kindle
- Last updated: January 16, 2018
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