Reflections

An ambitious and mostly successful combination of magical adventure and historical novel, this story of a half fairy girl set during the dust bowl years really brings that era to life with lively jazz clubs, deserted towns, racial inequities, and mountain high clouds of swirling, smothering dust. Though Callie has never known her piano playing father, her mother is sure he will be returning to the formerly fancy hotel they run and call home. Most people in their dust buried community have already fled, but hope keeps Callie's mother there until she is whisked away in a dust storm that seems to have been magically conjured when Callie tried playing her father's piano for the first time.Callie sets out on a cross country venture to find her mother with a homeless but resourceful boy she's just met, discovering her magic abilities as she goes. While not effortless and without cost, her magic solutions came a little too easily for my taste. That said I still enjoyed the book plenty and read right through it. I'm looking forward to its sequel.