All the Colors of Magic

October 15, 2019
A 10-year-old girl with "hearing-before-hearing" discovers the truth about her powers and her absentee dad. Penelope loves living with her mother and Granny Elizabeth in their little house on the outskirts of the swamp forest. In their seemingly all-white village, Penelope stands out: She has gray hair, she smells like fire, and she sometimes answers questions she hasn't yet been asked. But one evening, after Penelope's mother has spent several weeks in the hospital following a bad traffic accident, just before falling asleep, Penelope notices she doesn't smell fire--and when she wakes up, her hair is bright red. Penelope learns her mother has been painting her hair gray with some kind of paste to protect her, and it has something to do with her long-vanished father. He also had red hair, and he could do a little magic. But he walked out on them when she was a baby, and now he's stopped sending money. Slightly surreal touches that include a talking road keep the action light. Penelope's concern with color extends not just to the magic of hair color or morose gray envelopes, but to the everyday: her house, speckled red and green like a dragon; a blue shoelace; a bottle-green dress. It's a cheerfully childlike perspective, adding warmth even when Penelope is angry or frightened. The charming, comforting, and enjoyable tale of a magical girl discovering her (family and hair) roots. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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December 1, 2019

Gr 4-6-This imaginative middle grade fantasy, a German import, introduces 10-year-old Penelope who lives with her mom and grandma in "a little village, right next to a swamp forest." She discovers that her unusual abilities are rooted in her hair, which has been gray since she was born-until the day she wakes up and it's a boisterous red. It turns out her magic is inherited from her long-absent father. Angry when she learns the truth of his abandonment, she resolves to find and confront him, leading her on an adventure in which she must rescue him from villainous captors instead. She does this with the help of her cat, an invisibility device, and her own ingenuity. The tidy ending satisfies. VERDICT This standalone fantasy is perfect for fans of Cornelia Funke and those not yet ready for hefty, multivolume series.-Laurie Slagenwhite Walters, Brighton District Library, Brighton, MI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2019
Grades 3-5 Penelope Gardner, her mother, grandmother, and Coco the cat live just outside their village in a small house near the swamp forest. Penelope, now 10, presumes her father is dead, but she longs to know more about him, and her mother and grandmother won't talk about him. Other things Penelope no longer questions: her gray hair, rain on her August birthday that only she sees, her hearing-before-hearing abilities, and the talking road. As a string of strange, unexplained events begin the morning Penelope is drenched by a fast-moving vehicle careening through a huge puddle, she starts to wonder whether her father might be alive. Awaking one morning with her hair flaming red, Penelope suddenly feels she can tackle anything. Setting out alone, she uncovers one mystery after another as she endeavors to track him down. Zinck's spunky protagonist is joined by a solid cast of supporting characters that enliven her creative fantasy with mystery and intrigue. It's no surprise that Zinck's novel has bewitched readers in Germany, England, and now the U.S.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)