The Girl in the Witch's Garden by Erin Bowman

Available June 23, 2020

This book does have some discussions of parent illness and death, divorce, and the mother is magically spelled to be mean to children.

This book is absolutely delightful.

When her father becomes too ill to care for her, 12 year old Piper is sent to live with the mother who left her when she was only four. Hurt to find her absent mother has been fostering children, Piper is even more shocked when the children begin speaking of spells and magical gardens. Highly skeptical, Piper is convinced the children are playing a joke on her. But after meeting her mother for the first time in years, she learns her mother not only comes for a long line of witches, but is cold and dismissive of Piper when she learns Piper doesn’t have an affinity for magic.

Hurt, scared, and frustrated that she can’t communicate with her father, Piper spends her days bitter towards her new foster siblings and exhausted by their long list of chores. When Piper joins the children in their search for the secret, and magical, entrance to the dead gardens, she discovers that there is more to the story than she has been led to believe.

Full of mystery and action, The Girl and the Witch’s Garden is a beautiful story of family, friendship, and finding our inner strength.

I really enjoyed this middle grade fantasy novel. Piper is such a complex character that many children will relate to. She has grown up feeling abandoned by her mother and now has a dad with cancer and his treatments aren’t working. Her feelings of abandonment are intensified when she discovers her mother left not only for work, but begins fostering children. Not once has she tried to have a relationship with Piper but she wants one with other children? Piper has so much to deal with in this story and yet still remains strong and determined to make it to the end of the summer and see her father again. When she finds that she does have magical ability, Piper doesn’t use it just for herself, but to help out the children her mother has promised adoption to only if they can give her the secret to the gardens. Piper doesn’t want the other children chosen over her, but she also wants them to have a home.

The magic system is really well done with each child having their own affinity, or special ability. There is a creepy cat that always appears to be spying on the children-cats are creepy so I love that it was a cat. The children have to solve clues and find keys to unlock various parts of the secret garden mystery and it’s all very action packed and full of self discovery.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.