Hello again, everyone. Brielle managed to get me into the Hobbit Library before Farmer's Faire started, so I have managed to start... and finish... a book this time around!
I somehow managed to stumble across the perfect book. Alyssa and the Spell Garden by Alexandra Sheppard, and illustrated by Bex Glendining, is about 11-year-old Alyssa whose parents are on the brink of divorce, and she is sent to spend time with her mum's side of the family, who she's never met, let alone heard of. I can't begin to imagine what that was like for Alyssa. She'd been wanting to go with one of her parents to their meetings, but that didn't happen.
Alyssa is dropped off at her aunt Jasmine's Tea Shop and begins to learn about her family. She begins to learn that things are not as they seem. The Tea Shop isn't exactly busy, and people come in, but Jasmine doesn't ask them to pay for the tea. Alyssa thinks that is odd until she begins to learn that her mother's family is magical. She has an accident, and it's revealed that Alyssa, herself, has magic, and her mother tried to block the magic from herself as well.
Upon the arrival of her cousins, Rosalie and Rue, Alyssa joins the Silverleaf School of Plants and Potions and begins to learn more about her family, who she's only just met. I really liked that for Alyssa as she was able to learn more about her Jamaican heritage. She was moving up to secondary school after the holidays, so it was rather a rough time for her. That must have felt awful for her.
Alyssa learns that the neighbourhood has been protected for so long by her Auntie Jasmine but now strange things are happening and people are being forced out by developers, the neighbourhood is changing and Jasmine is sick so cannot do anything to help. I feel so sorry for Alyssa because she's gained so much by this point, and then she may lose it all, so what does she do? She rounds up the kids from Silverleaf and the rival school, Hemlock, and they fight to raise funds for the Tea Shop so it can be saved.
It was a lesson, for sure, as both groups tried, and sometimes succeeded, in sabotaging the other, but a revelation makes both groups realise that they truly must work together in order to save everything they know and love. I enjoyed reading this part as the group came to the realisation that someone was sabotaging them and pitting them against each other. Rosalie manages to forgive the lead boy from Hemlock.
I loved the idea of this book centering around a magical garden for children. It brings its own kinda magic as well. It gives children like Alyssa the chance to learn how to use and control their powers using plants. That's not something I have really seen before.
I will, of course, not reveal what the end result was because you need to go and read it yourself because that is what you should do and not rely on me to tell you how the book ends.
I will make sure Cissarose gets in some reading after attending the Farmer's Faire, so she has a book to talk about next month.
Lots of love,
Ellieanarose xx
