Sleeping Spells and Dragon Scales by Wendy S. Swore, 304 pages. Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2024. $19.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: MANY
Believing in fairies made Fairy Door Trail an obvious hangout for Alaina, and her best friend—and skeptic—Liam didn’t mind tagging along. One day, they stumbled into what could have been a fairy circle and most likely, accidentally offended a fairy. Since that day, Alaina and Liam drifted apart, and Alaina has had to deal with being cursed. But now Liam is showing signs of being cursed, too, and he needs Alaina’s help.
Swore’s writing sits in the beautiful space between reality and fantasy. Both characters and readers know that fantasy and fairy tale creatures are not real, but they still want to believe they might be. There is magic in believing and in recognizing the fantastical parts of reality. In the book, Alaina and Liam’s English teacher gives an assignment for the students to write their lives as fairy tales, and it has made me look at my life a little differently—with a little more hope and a little more recognition for my main character and heroine status.
Alaina is implied Latina and has an autoimmune disorder, Liam has a chronic neurological disorder, and Doctor Titus is Kenyan. The mature content rating is for mentions of kissing and for near-death experiences. The violence rating is for some mild fantasy violence imagery.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen
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