Name: The Healing Spell
ISBN: 9780545165594

Kimberley Griffiths Little

Eleven-year-old tomboy Livie is sure that she is responsible for the accident that has put her mother into a coma, so, trying to make amends, she travels through the Louisiana swamps to get a spell that will make her mother well again.

The Healing Spell

         For a brief period of my life, I was a teacher.  I decided on education as my focus in college because of a conversation I had with my little brother when he was in 4th or 5th grade.  He was telling me about a book he read, and he was so excited and so animated and all he wanted to do was share his joy with me.  I realized that I would absolutely love to have those conversations with kids all the time.  So, I spent my years in college making sure I had enough credits to be certified to teach Language Arts (I also ended up certified to teach Social Studies and Science as well).  Unfortunately, Language Arts teachers are plentiful, so I was not able to dig in and become the greatest middle school English teacher that ever did the job.  I also became intensely disenfranchised by the education system.  Trying to find a book to teach that every parent will agree to let their child read is absolutely impossible.  There will always be about 10% of parents that refuse each book a teacher might select.  It’s also impossible to find a book that every student is going to enjoy reading.  Even worse, many teachers are stuck on teaching “classics,” which aren’t the most uplifting and positive books ever written geared towards middle-level readers.  That was my biggest gripe, why do we insist on plying our children with depressing reading material?  The two that I recall taught the most over the 10 years I spent in a middle school classroom were Where the Red Fern Grows and The Outsiders.  Both of those are negative storylines and depressing, so why do we make kids prone to mood swings and outbursts read depressing books?  It’s ridiculous. 

            With all of that said, I would have never recommended this book to a middle-level reader, much less a reluctant one.  One of the most difficult things about getting a kid to read is finding high-interest age-level appropriate books, and I don’t feel like this one would be high interest for the age level it’s intended.  It’s billed as a middle-level, and I would have never suggested this one to anybody in those grades. 

            This book centers around the mother of four kids who is in a coma.  One of the children believes the coma is her fault, and that little girl is our main character.  The entire book is about her grappling with her guilt, which is a heavy burden for a 12-year-old.  That is sad.  That is too sad to force up on a 12-year-old reluctant reader.  This book also includes very regional specific language and subjects that would be completely foreign to anybody outside of said region, thus making it confusing and unrelatable to most kids.  A kid in say, New Mexico, would likely have zero knowledge of swamps and boats, which would make this very confusing for a kid in Albuquerque. 

            In conclusion, I didn’t like this book.  The story is sad, there’s WAY too much religion, and it doesn’t end well.  I wouldn’t consider recommending this book to a middle-grade reader, though I am fully planning on passing it along to my middle-school-aged niece to see if she shares my sentiments. 

Kristen Claiborn

         For a brief period of my life, I was a teacher.  I decided on education as my focus in college because of a conversation I had with my little brother when he was in 4th or 5th grade.  He was telling me about a book he read, and he was so excited and so animated and all he wanted to do was share his joy with me.  I realized that I would absolutely love to have those conversations with kids all the time.  So, I spent my years in college making sure I had enough credits to be certified to teach Language Arts (I also ended up certified to teach Social Studies and Science as well).  Unfortunately, Language Arts teachers are plentiful, so I was not able to dig in and become the greatest middle school English teacher that ever did the job.  I also became intensely disenfranchised by the education system.  Trying to find a book to teach that every parent will agree to let their child read is absolutely impossible.  There will always be about 10% of parents that refuse each book a teacher might select.  It’s also impossible to find a book that every student is going to enjoy reading.  Even worse, many teachers are stuck on teaching “classics,” which aren’t the most uplifting and positive books ever written geared towards middle-level readers.  That was my biggest gripe, why do we insist on plying our children with depressing reading material?  The two that I recall taught the most over the 10 years I spent in a middle school classroom were Where the Red Fern Grows and The Outsiders.  Both of those are negative storylines and depressing, so why do we make kids prone to mood swings and outbursts read depressing books?  It’s ridiculous. 

            With all of that said, I would have never recommended this book to a middle-level reader, much less a reluctant one.  One of the most difficult things about getting a kid to read is finding high-interest age-level appropriate books, and I don’t feel like this one would be high interest for the age level it’s intended.  It’s billed as a middle-level, and I would have never suggested this one to anybody in those grades. 

            This book centers around the mother of four kids who is in a coma.  One of the children believes the coma is her fault, and that little girl is our main character.  The entire book is about her grappling with her guilt, which is a heavy burden for a 12-year-old.  That is sad.  That is too sad to force up on a 12-year-old reluctant reader.  This book also includes very regional specific language and subjects that would be completely foreign to anybody outside of said region, thus making it confusing and unrelatable to most kids.  A kid in say, New Mexico, would likely have zero knowledge of swamps and boats, which would make this very confusing for a kid in Albuquerque. 

            In conclusion, I didn’t like this book.  The story is sad, there’s WAY too much religion, and it doesn’t end well.  I wouldn’t consider recommending this book to a middle-grade reader, though I am fully planning on passing it along to my middle-school-aged niece to see if she shares my sentiments. 

Jessica Nottingham

To say that The Healing Spell touched me is an understatement, but I can't quite find the words to accurately describe how much I truly adored this book. Filled with lessons, angst-driven at times and completely uplifting at others, it is one of those books that truly made a mark on my life as a reader. From the moment I started the book I fell in love with Livie and her sisters. In fact, this book had the power to transport me back to the days when I too felt like Livie did. Lost, lonely at times, and yet still always loved.

My love for Livie started when, as I mentioned above, she reminded me of that tough time between being a child and becoming a teen. At 11 years old, Livie isn't sure where she fits in the world around her. She doesn't quite get the "girlie" things that her sisters do, but she isn't quite comfortable being described as a tomboy either. Watching her navigate this difficult time in her life was so deeply touching. As I watched her make decisions, some good and others bad, I fell more in love with her character. Livie is one of those flawed, realistic characters that I adore. You see the cracks, but you love her all the more for them.

As for the story itself, it is pure magic. I think I cried more during this book than any other that I've read, as I contemplated how I came to be the person that I am now. We've all been through what Livie is going through, even if it wasn't the exact same. The sheer honesty between these pages is what really drew me in. Unfortunately, there isn't too much I can say without giving the plot away, so instead I'll gush over the setting! It is so apparent that Kimberly Griffiths Little researched the bayou that she set Livie and her family in. The lush setting jumps off the page at the reader, and I am sure I learned more about Louisiana bayous than I ever knew before. Besides being the perfect backdrop for Livie's story of hope and growth, it is also a fascinating entity in its own right.

You can probably tell from my gushing, albeit rambling, review that I really fell in love with this book. I'll be sad to part with my copy when I give it away tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to purchasing one of my own! The Healing Spell will definitely be one of those books that I'll read again. I'm looking forward to it.

The Healing Spell

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