Is That a Gryphon in Your Backpack?

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Giada Bellantuono isn’t your typical heroine. She’s pudgy (and unashamed about it), loves her family fiercely even if she doesn’t always show it. She defiantly brings an infant creature to class and disdains the notions of evil witches. Those are just stories to scare impressionable young children and she’s no longer a child.

However, she IS 13 or nearing it. That means she’s not as grown up as she’d like others to think. Giada’s impetuous, outspoken, prone to fits of temper, hotheaded, sarcastic and sharp tongued. She has a thing or three to learn about diplomacy.

You can’t fault her for can-do spirit, however. She’s bound and determined to free her brother and she rises to the occasion when an impossible task is set before her by the imposing strega who is holding him prisoner. She learns courage and puts her magical power to startling use in order to fulfill the request.

This novel posits a magic that works in mysterious and bizarre ways. Lucciole (fireflies) are sentient and provide a light as bright as the stars. The moon can be scooped out of a lake like a fish. People can communicate with spiders and gryphons actually exist. Witches can absurd power by eating someone’s heart. (Gasp! Shades of Neil Gaiman!)

Giada is fiery tempered but she learns to bank her anger in service to her magic…or can use her rage to fuel her magic. She’s quite feisty. She’s indicated that she doesn’t want to follow the path her family has set for her, preferring to heal animals over people. Yet, the approval given her by a so-called evil witch makes you wonder if her path may take a different turn than being a magical veterinarian.

The novel also takes place in an Italy that never was or perhaps lies off the beaten path for the curious tourist. In any case, it shines with all the sunshine and quiet charm of the Italian countryside.

This novel may be for the YA set but it proves to have startling innovations for those of a worldlier turn of mind.