Rating: Not for me

Reading level: Mid-Late Elementary

A girl is accepted to magic school even though she doesn’t appear to have magic powers. She encounters bullying, but eventually saves the school.

This book doesn’t meet my criteria for books with magic, with too much emphasis on the occult, and too close to home in context.

Possible concerns:

  • Ghosts are an entire section of the school of magic, and a ghost teacher tams up with the main character to save the day
  • Palm reading, crystal balls, fortune telling, and the occult are a major part of the school.
  • Homosexuality. Conservatives on structure of the family may wish to know that the (female) leader of the magic school has a wife, and there are a couple frames where this homosexual couple is affectionate with eachother

Things I like:

  • Representation. I like that several if the heroes are women, the main character and her sidekick are both non-Caucasian girls, and the mentor is a brown-skinned man.