Add a dash of magic and a splash of queerness to The Parent Trap and you might get a book like this one.
After 12-year-old Emma and her parents moved to the small town of Samsonville, New York—“kind of an off-brand-Salem,” with a history of witch trials—Emma has manifested strange new powers. She’s a witch—but she can’t seem to control her abilities, especially at times of strong emotion. When she gets angry, storms and lightning can result. Her parents’ advice has been to “act normal”—to suppress her powers and keep her feelings tightly controlled.
Emma thus often feels left out and alone, a feeling exacerbated because she’s also an adoptee from Korea, with White adoptive parents, and “the only Asian person around for miles.” Her new best friend Avangeline is the only bright spark in her life. “Being near her was like coming back to my own room after a long trip, where everything felt just right,” Emma explains. It’s clear that Emma has a crush on her. (“I’d tried to find boys cute, but I just didn’t,” she says.)
When Avangeline’s parents announce they are getting divorced, however, and that Avangeline will be moving across the country, Emma is devastated by the idea of losing Avangeline and having to start seventh grade in the fall without her. She hatches a plan to get Avangeline’s parents to fall back in love—but with little idea of how to control her powers, and a potential mentor who may have a separate agenda, things go amusingly awry.
The story has a clear theme of learning to accept and celebrate one’s whole self, but it is lightly handled in a lively plot full of (mis)adventures and magic. Emma’s talking dog and mind-reading cat add humor as they offer her assistance (and sometimes aggravation) in her quest to learn more about her powers and to keep Avangeline close. Emma’s queerness is fully accepted by herself and her parents; it is a part of her identity that causes no consternation.
A recommended read that is both fully contained and leaves me hoping for a sequel.
Emma is Asian; her parents and Avangeline are White.
