Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

I just loved this book. Everything about it: the characters, the academy, the magic, the history.

First, Del is a ball of light. Royce does a phenomenal job making Del a whole and complete person who feels all of the feels and just embodies all of the emotions of a person of her age.

Second, our main secondary characters are just such great support and are fleshed out so well. Every character is full of heart and flaws and spirit (sometimes they ARE a spirit).

Third, the academy and the magic. Royce sure knows how to build a world and pull the reader into it. This academy is first full of magic but is also full of history and culture and community. And the conjure Royce introduced is very detailed and unique to other magics found in books.

And these are just three things I loved within the book; I could keep going. Fantasy readers, specifically magical school fans, are going to adore this new book (series???).

what a lovely story!! it's hard not to compare it to root magic by eden royce, which was the debut from this author that stole my heart earlier this year. root magic is a southern gothic story with high stakes, while conjure island is portal-fantasy-esque with a low-stakes family mystery. conjure island leans more into fantasy, seemingly using the same folk magic as a jumping off point to make this fictional island more fantastical (like, this one has ghosts, portals, tangible spells, etc)

i could feel the disconnect with me not being the target demographic for this a little more than i did with root magic. but i think that's just personal preference! i never felt spoken down to, and i found the information about the magic so intriguing. i loved the conversations about why this culture keeps these practices so insular for safety, while also grappling with how these practices might be dying off because of how insular they are.

loved the cast of characters here. del was so great, and a perfect example of the ~parentification or growing-up-too-fast that kids like that go through. i also moved homes a trillion times so i feel her so hard. ava, her roommate, was a DELIGHT. and all the teachers at the school were super fun! in no small part because the audiobook - narrated by bahni turpin - was fantastic.

if you liked root magic, pick this one up as well!! i can't wait for everything else eden royce has in store for not only middlegrade readers, but YA and adult readers too.

thank you to netgalley for my first ever arc! i promise i'll read it before the pub date next time :')

My Rating: 4
A whimsical and heartfelt journey of a girl discovering her magical roots and bridging lost long family together again.
Thank you Walden Pond Press, HarperCollins for providing an e-book copy through NetGalley.

Synopsis:
Del has all she needs with her small, close-knit family. Who needs same-aged friends or a community when they move states every year anyway? Sure, her mother died during childbirth, and her father is always out on deployment, but her grandmother, Gramma, is always there for her. Even when the loneliness creeps into Del’s thoughts, Gramma supports her in every way. Then, Del’s life is upended when Gramma takes a fall and must stay in the hospital to recover. With no other option, Del is sent to live with her great-grandmother, her Gramma’s mother, Nana Rose, someone whom she never knew existed. She travels deep into the swamp of South Carolina, where the air sticks to your skin and unseen creatures constantly make noise. When Nana Rose suddenly offers Del a chance to attend her school and learn her ancestor’s traditions, including a practice called “conjure magic”, Del nearly refuses. First of all, she doesn’t know this woman at all, and second, magic? From fairy tales and story books? Del can’t believe she is stuck in this weird place and not helping her Gramma. But when she attends a school meeting and witnesses the strange powers at work, Del soon realizes that Nana Rose wasn’t kidding. Conjure magic is real, and Del finds herself surrounded by teachers that are witches, classmates with fantastic abilities, ghost butlers and odd creatures. She finally has a chance to stay in one place, make actual friends, and learn of her family’s roots, but something about the whole school bugs her. Why hadn’t her Gramma told her about this?

What I Liked:
In Conjure Island, the details and world building of the conjure school stand out the most, enchanting readers with a form of African-American magic most have never heard of, but is just as special as others. The brooms, the different spells, the interaction between students and ghosts/creatures, and the teachers are all whimsical yet focused, well-researched and well-written. Readers can imagine themselves learning the same techniques in their own home. The themes of family, roots, and belonging throughout the novel also elevate the story and Del as a character, as she tries to figure out what happened to her Gramma, the history behind Nana Rose, and a shadowy presence that surrounds the school. This is not an action-packed, magic-school story like The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton, but more of a laid-back and introspective journey of a character who is finally finding a place to belong.

What I Didn’t Like:
The story is…kind of boring? After Royce’s middle grade debut Root Magic, I thought there would be more tension to the plot. Conjure Island is a quieter novel, but sometimes that lack of immediate conflict or intense scenes made me put the book down often. Maybe my expectations were too fantasy-adventure focused. Also, her new friend, Eva, talks like a wizened adult who knows exactly what to say to help Del through her thinking and problems. She doesn’t speak like a 12-year-old, and it’s off-putting, as if Del is getting taught lessons by her peer constantly.

Who would you recommend this to?
Kids who like reading about conjure magic (Root Magic by Eden Royce or Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith) or who like magic school books that are less plot-intensive (The Girl at Earth’s End by Tara Dairman or A Taste of Magic by J. Elle).

Review Date: August 9, 2023

Eden Royce does an amazing job of explaining the GeeChee community in such a fun and immersive way. I enjoyed Root Magic and knew that I was going to become obsessed with Conjure Island. This book touched on grief and how lonely it can be when dealing with it alone. Especially when you don’t have community around you.
I enjoyed everything about this book

PRO'S:
* Excellent world-building. This, for me, was the best part of the book and has made me want to find some really good NF books about this part of the world and the Gullah culture and traditions.
* The STRONG emphasis on family and the importance of that.
* The STRONG emphasis on good, strong, friendships and how they are so vital to our lives, no matter our age
* The importance of learning the dangers of keeping secrets
* Magic.

CON'S:
* Though I typically really like this narrator [Bahni Turpin], I didn't care for her narration at all for this book and I think that contributed to some of my not caring for the book [I cannot say dislike, but more on that below] as much as I would have if I had been able to read/read this book.
* I am not the target audience for this book. I am not from the south, I know next to nothing about the Island peoples and the Gullah traditions and culture [except that I vaguely remember from watching Gullah Gullah Island with the kids I took care of], which made the understanding of some of this book difficult [which is why I'd love a really good NF book about this very thing] and I am an older, white woman. There are just some things that I will never fully understand because of that. IF I had known more about what this book was about, I would have realized I was not the target audience for it and I probably would have passed.
* I didn't know that there was a book before this - reading that book may have helped with some of the issues I had with understanding some of the traditions and culture in this book. I really wish I had known.
* Unfortunately, while I really liked a lot of the characters in this book [there are some really excellent side characters that I really loved, but that you don't see much of as this is Del's story and not theirs], I had a real problem with the main character, Del. I found her to be defiant, rude and often just a big brat. She had no problem breaking the rules [that were there for her safety] and she really grated on my last nerve. While she improves by the end, so much of how she was in the beginning stayed with me a lot more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Eden Royce, and HarperCollins Children's Books/Walden Pond Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I really enjoyed Eden Royce’s first book, so I jumped at the chance to review her next book, Conjure Island. While not connected to Root Magic on a story level, the two books share similar themes of Black heritage and family ties with ancestral magic tying it all together, and I appreciate how Royce explored another aspect of that here.
Del’s arc is a fairly common one in children’s diaspora stories, where the young protagonist is disconnected from their ancestral culture due to choices made by one of their forebears. In this case, she starts the book with a close relationship with her grandmother, who cares for her because her mother has died and her father is often deployed, until her grandmother falls ill, leading her to be sent to her grandmother’s estranged mother, Nana Rose. It’s a wonderful journey, watching Del become accustomed to her new surroundings, discover the beauty of conjure magic, and find out what it was that drove her grandmother toward cutting ties, and not passing on the conjure magic tradition to Del earlier.
The setting is also richly imagined, being set on a magical, isolated island at a school for Gullah children that Nana Rose runs. While there’s a growing trend of “diverse” magic school books cropping up in recent years, this is perhaps the most unique, and I appreciate the specific cultural emphasis. I particularly liked the magical alligator that knows a lot of the school’s history.
This is another magical book from Eden Royce, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a magical book about a Black girl.

Thanks to Walden Pond Press & NetGalley for this advanced copy!

Conjure Island is a cute middle grade, light fantasy that gave me a unique perspective into the culture of the African American population in South Carolina.

It follows Del, a tween whose only real family is her dad and gramma, to Nemmine Island, where the great-grandmother she never knew she had runs a school that teaches southern conjure. Along the way, Del learns important life lessons that will eventually help her bring her broken family back together.

While I know I’m not the target audience for this book, I enjoyed the themes it focused on, the unique magic elements, and the quirky characters.

The themes in this book are profound and universal, but simply put so middle grade readers and onward can understand them. Del learns that life is better and easier with a community around you, that remembering our history makes us more grateful and wise in the present, and that hiding our feelings can create rifts between us.
Some of the themes were less subtle/seamless in the story than others, which may or may not appeal to the middle grade reader.

I probably won’t reread this one anytime soon, but I’m glad I got the chance to experience it!

If you or a child in your life enjoy middle grade fantasy, especially if you’re African American or live in the South, I think this book is definitely worth a read. It will leave you with a warm heart and and a resolve to keep your loved ones close.

❗️parent death, hospital visit

Del is not expecting to spend the summer at her great-grandmother’s house in South Carolina. After a medical emergency in her family necessitates it, she travels down to South Carolina. There, she learns her Nana Rose is actually the head of a magic school for conjure magic. Del not only starts learning about magic but also about why she has never heard about it from her family before.

I liked the setting and the uniqueness of the magic here. It was really different from a lot of other middle grade magic books. However, I thought the pacing was too slow for the age level (and even for me as an adult). It took way too long for Del to get to the magic and I think some kids would maybe get bored before then.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Excellence! This book will feel like home for Black southerners and especially Geechee folk. Top-notch storytelling with the perfect ratio of suspense and action and wisdom. I appreciated seeing my culture: cleaning rituals for new homes, mirrored trays for perfumes, chilly bears (which we call "thrills" in Savannah and "cold cups" in New Orleans), and language that my mother, myself, and my children still use (e.g. "BIM!") If I loved an author's debut novel, I tiptoe into the second release, because it ain't always as good. Not the case here. Just as yummy as Root Magic and I ate...it...up! I can't wait to read Conjure Island again with my students this summer.

Having loved Royce's debut, ROOT MAGIC, I was eager to read this new title...and it did NOT disappoint. CONJURE ISLAND shares many of the same themes as that first novel--family, heritage, and community--and is likewise told from the perspective of a tween girl. Del arrives on Nemmine Island with her guard up. It's one thing to be shipped off to a relative who you didn't know existed. It's quite another to start unraveling a family secret, one that makes you question yourself even more. Thankfully, Del doesn't have to go at this alone for long. With her friend Eva's encouragement, Del begins to shake off her weariness about feeling "useless and stupid." This increased emotional intelligence helps to repair not only her self-confidence; it also serves as a conduit for addressing intergenerational trauma.

A fun and captivating mystery that will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Royce does an excellent job of exploring family dynamics and identity while weaving in a good dose of magic.

After Del's grandma gets sick & needs surgery, Del has to go stay with her great-grandma who she never knew about. As she learns more about her heritage and "conjure magic" she learns more about who she is and where she comes from.
This is a beautifully written book, there are so many unexpected things that happen and the setting is a wonderful backdrop.
I would love to see more of Del and her family in other books!
A great middle grade book , with magic and family throughout.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I received this ARC from NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Ever since reading “Root Magic” by Eden Royce, I have been eagerly awaiting her next middle grade novel. So, when NetGalley sent me the ARC for “Conjure Island,” I was thrilled. However, please be aware that I read an *Uncorrected E-Proof* and that my review may, or may not, be reflective of the polished, published version that will be available to the public in June 2023.

If you love fantasies in the vein of “Harry Potter,” and “Percy Jackson,” then you’ll likely appreciate this book. And although “Conjure Island” shares some similarities with the above, Royce crafted the novel in a completely different way.

There are *so many things* to love about this book. I mean, what kid (or adult!) wouldn’t want a library where books automagically return themselves and has an invisible librarian on call 24/7? Or gets to go to a school taught by anthropomorphic teachers and ghosts? The book has some excellent life lessons that will (or at least should) resonate with readers. For example,

“…How a person views me is a reflection of themselves and their experiences. It has nothing to do with me…”

There is so much that I enjoyed about this book, and the character Del is one of them.

Delphinia “Del” Baker is an eleven-year-old Air Force brat. Due to her father’s occupation, Del’s tiny family moves around the country every single year. It doesn’t seem like a big deal because Del’s family is tiny and is comprised of only three people: Del, her father, and her maternal grandmother, Violet.

Even though Del’s mother died when she was a baby, she’s not alone and finds constant companionship and friendship with her grandma, especially since her father is often deployed. But families keep secrets.

When Grandma Violet falls ill, Del is astonished to learn two things that alter the course of her life: that she will be sent to a great-grandma, Rose, that she never even knew existed, and that Rose—and Del herself—are Gullah.

Rose is no ordinary woman. In fact, she’s a teacher and a headmistress of a school for Gullah children. Over the course of several weeks, Del learns all about conjure magic, learning to embody the school motto: Protect. Educate. Survive. She also learns that magic doesn’t automatically fix things, but instead,

“…connects people, builds community, and strengthens bonds…”

The secrets that breed the disconnect in her own family drives Del throughout the book.

One of the things that I really think needs to be addressed in this novel, however, is Del’s questioning of the magic during the first five chapters. For example, while she was wishing that magic was real so she could be zapped home, she was actually riding in a rower-less boat that was being moved and steered by an alligator. Then, when the island just *appeared* out of nowhere, Del really didn’t reveal a sense of shock, instead she just asked a question. It wasn’t until Chapter 9 during the house transformation that she actually began believing that magic existed; at this point, it seemed a bit too late.

Another example of this is when Del was introduced to a haint named Jube who took her bag to her room. But the discussion about him was too brief. If I saw a man whose feet levitated off the floor and disappeared into thin air, I definitely would be shocked out of my mind. But Del’s amazement at it all seems too muted.

Called the ‘Mist’ and the ‘Glamour’ by Rick Riordan, Royce just simply calls the enchanted house “an enchantment.” If Royce were to find a uniquely Gullah word and actually name the enchantment and refer to it throughout the book, the enchantment would remain in the readers’ minds more. For example, if she called the enchantment using the Gullah word, ‘Bakien’, and then translated it for readers in English as ‘Bacon’, she could explain that it’s called that because xyz, and that whenever they needed to hide what they were doing, they would ‘throw people the Bacon’. Or when Rose ran after Del’s broom, she could say she, ‘threw Rose the Bacon’.

One of the biggest drawbacks that I see with the novel is the segregation. You see this in other novels as well whenever magic is part of the storyline. But whereas HP and Riordan’s Percy Jackson both include the ‘other’, Royce’s novel does not. The character Rose explains why this is so, and even provides a reason for the self-imposed segregation, but authors have found a multitude of ways to make their books more inclusive. This is extremely important because the inclusion of diverse characters would likely boost sales and kids of various backgrounds might be more eager to read the book, and (hopefully!) the series; kids of non-Gullah ethnicity might not be able to imagine themselves in this story.

Authors have used diverse ways of going about this, and one way that the author could have incorporated it would be partially through backstory and partially through the present story. For example, if Rose had named the individual perpetrators of the past and placed blame with *specific* culprits, Rose’s community could have remained a secret society and still been open to other African Americans, Native Americans, whites, and etc. To add more tension, Rose could have explained that the daughter of the offender and the Gullah community wanted to make peace and encourage understanding, so they made a pact stating that the offending group would send the first-born child of a single generation to the Vesey school, and vice versa, so that they could learn about and from one another. Del’s grandmother, Violet, could have also been the one of her generation slated to attend that school (more problems, more tension), but Rose could have refused because of xyz.

To bring this into the present, one of the ‘other’ students could have arrived, so not only would Del have a friend (Eva) but she would also have a non-Gullah false-friend-or-false-enemy that could build up tension; someone that she could like/dislike and trust/not trust at various points in the novel. Finally, the only diversity (other than the Gullah) that was included in the story was a reference to one of the other student’s ‘two dads’, but it was included almost as an afterthought at the very end of the story.

I can’t say whether or not Royce will turn “Conjure Island” into a series, but I’m certainly hoping for it. The author breathed life into this story. I visually saw the ‘Hall of Brooms’ and all of the movement from her vivid description. I also understood and empathized with Del and with her entire family. Royce is a great author and making the Gullah center stage in a novel is a gift for young readers and adults alike. I don’t know what the edited version will bring, but I am certain that Royce’s literary talent will shine through.

Conjure Island tells the story of Dell, whose father is in the military and whose grandmother takes care of her when he is not with them. When Dell's grandmother becomes sick and undergoes surgery, Dell is sent to spend the summer with a great grandmother she never knew existed. She learns about conjure magic and the mysteries of her family and its history on this marsh. I loved the focus on community and the importance of the community standing together for the magic to work. This was a really fun read, and I would love to see a sequel of what happens next for Dell and her family. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a digital advanced copy of this book!