Salt Magic by Hope Larson

 

I first came across Salt Magic on Amazon in the midst of one of my book buying frenzies. This middle grades fantasy graphic novel caught my attention with the illustration on the cover, particularly that beautiful and mysterious lady in the clouds. The summary seemed pretty interesting too, so I decided to give it a try.

The plot of the novel follows a young girl named Vonceil who lives with her family on a rural farm in the countryside. As the story begins, her older brother Elber returns home from WWI. Vonceil has been eagerly looking forward to his return, but she soon discovers that the person who comes back is no longer the same as the person who left. Elber is hopelessly grown up now, and is not as interested in hanging out with her as he used to me. His main interests now lie in marrying his sweetheart and starting a family. Vonceil is disappointed, but doesn't have too much time to dwell on it as a mysterious woman soon arrives at the farm.

This woman claims to have known Elber from his time in France during the war. She is upset with him for leaving her and demands he return with her to France. When he refuses, she reveals herself to be a witch and curses the family farm, turning their fresh water from the well into saltwater. Vonceil decides to try and save her brother and the farm herself, and sets out on an adventure filled with danger, magic, and sacrifice. Along the way, she learns a lot about what it means to grow up and take care of those you love. 

This novel was a cute little read, and it was beautifully illustrated. The coming-of-age storyline and the themes centered around maturity and sacrifice were appropriate for its intended middle grades audience, and Vonceil was a likable and relatable character. The only real issue I had during my reading was the length and the pacing. I thought that the story Larson was telling was bigger than the amount of pages she was trying to cram it into. Things happened too quickly and were lacking detail. At times, I felt confused at some of the plot points, and it was because not enough time was spent developing the details surrounding how the magic was working and what Vonceil's quest was. I understood the overall big picture of it, of course, but I thought some of the finer points needed more development.

I did enjoy Salt Magic as I was reading, but once I finished, I found that it faded from my mind very quickly. As such, I don't have a lot more thoughts to share on it. As I said before, it's fine for a middle grades audience. I thought that the story was interesting and the themes were worthy, but I do wish that more time was spent really fleshing it out. It's definitely not the best middle grades graphic novel I've tried, but there's nothing too bad about it either. It won't be one that sticks with me, but I'm sure my students will enjoy reading it once I donate it to my classroom library.  

Challenge Tally

Middle Grade Mission: 6/24

Total Books Read in 2022: 16