20 Books of Summer: Book 6

The Time of Green Magic is a wonderfully magical story that captured me wholeheartedly as two families blend in an enchanting old house that holds its own secrets.

Eleven-year-old Abi’s life changes irrevocably when her Granny Grace leaves her to go to Jamaica after her Dad meets and marries Polly who has two boys, Max and Louis.  Abi struggles to feel comfortable in Polly’s home and to adapt to having two stepbrothers which is hardly surprising as she has been brought up by her father and Granny after the death of her mother. The family are forced to move and find themselves falling in love with an old ivy-covered house next to a churchyard … and so the magic begins …

Sometimes, Abi, you have to believe in magic.

Abi clearly has a deep love of reading which transports her imagination to the world of the book she is reading, but she didn’t expect to taste salt on her fingertips and feel water on a book about the ocean.   Is there a magical connection between the house and books living in more than her imagination? 

Not long after moving into his new home, six-year-old Louis, who adores animals, finds an unusual visitor which both terrifies and fascinates him.  Where has this creature come from, and does it pose a threat to the family? 

I really enjoyed the realistic portrayal of family life as the children adapt to living together.  There is jealousy, arguments and misunderstandings, but there is also the bonding that happens as time passes, as shared memories are created, and the family settle together into this new life.  Each of the children have their own issues:  Max has fallen out with his best friend Danny; Abi feels jealous of the attention that her father is giving to his stepchildren; and, Louis is keeping secrets. 

Louis eventually reveals his secret visitor to Abi; it was so heart-warming to see that she believes her young sibling and treats him with such tenderness.  Abi makes a startling discovery about the visitor’s origins, a discovery that leads to a journey into the distant past …

There is magic in this story:   the magic of story-telling and imagination, and the magic of family, connected through shared experience in a new home. 

This is a gorgeously heart-warming story of family and home, a perfect blend of reality and magic.