I had been putting off this book because I only realized this was YA, or perhaps even middle grade, after I bought it. Those are just genres that I don’t typically reach for, I tend to prefer older characters, nuanced motivations, and complex plot and world building which really doesn’t scream middle grade. That said, I can enjoy it from time to time, with Tiffany Aching being the primary example. It was just sitting there in my audible library and it’s by an author I really love, so, whatever, let’s give it a shot.
The main character for this one is a young girl, I can’t remember exactly how old but I want to say about 10-12. Rosa Mandolini is from a prestigious family of artists and painters, and in this world, art is magic. Drawings can become “illuminations” if they have the right artist behind them, those who are able to imbue paintings with magic. Now, these illuminations don’t necessarily do what you’d expect them to do. It’s not like you draw a knight and suddenly a knight comes to life and protects you. For instance, a crow holding a branch of one tree might ward against disease, but a crow dancing under the moon might curse your neighbor, or something. There are a ton of very, very specific drawings that do very specific things that don’t necessarily correlate on first glance. The paintings have to be so specific that even small additions or subtractions, like changing the eye color of an illumination, can change what it does or render it useless. Rosa once colored the eyes of an illumination purple and it voided the magic within it, and the ward against mice went away and all the food went bad.
All her life Rosa has wanted to become a legitimate Illuminator who’s hired by the citizens of the city to make various works of art for all sorts of purposes. There’s good money to be made in a well-crafted, long-lasting illumination and her family is one of repute. The problem is that none of her art work ever turns into something more, her paintings stay as a 2-dimensional, non-magical work of art no matter what she does. Her uncle tries to tell her this is okay, he can sense her magic and one day it will come. She’s not convinced of that at all, her grandmother never developed any powers and despite holding a lot of respect in the family, she wants “more” for herself. She feels very compelled to draw radishes. Radishes with fangs. Radishes with halos. Radishes riding horses. She just really loves painting radishes, and her uncle can sense something to these paintings, but they just aren’t quite there yet. One day she stumbles upon a box with a ward that tries to get her to leave it alone, but naturally, this makes her utterly determined to open it. Out pops a sentient talking crow who’s like “dude what were you thinking, you just released it!” Enter shenanigans.
This was a cute story, it was fairly to the point, and it featured a well-meaning, but impulsive main character. It did draw on a lot of tropes found in the middle-grade/YA category, including an orphaned main character living with extended family (although I deeply appreciate this family was not toxic, but loving and supportive), a hidden gift, a family secret, and a “special/chosen one” leaning plotline. I personally found the plotline to be pretty predictable, but again, this isn’t meant to be a complicated adult epic fantasy with a ton of twists and turns. It’s a cute story about a girl who wants to impress her family but ends up getting into mischief when she opens a magical box. I’d definitely, definitely recommend it to any kids who have a knack for drawing and a love of magic.
Rating: 8/10 or 4/5 stars on goodreads