Pig Magic
Young Readers

Discovering Pig Magic

By
Julie Crabtree
“A steady, sweet, and quiet book, full of humanity.” —MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
Select Format

Mattie, Ariel, and Nicki are fast friends facing the uncertainty of being thirteen. Mattie’s kitschy pig collection and agoraphobic mother might completely derail her social life. Ariel’s attempts to follow in Rachael Ray’s culinary footsteps have landed her in hot water. And Nicki is carrying a secret that threatens to cut her off from her best friends.

After finding a book of spells, the three girls perform a ritual that will grant each the object of her desire. This requires that they each bury something special: for Ariel, a tiny antique spoon; for Nicki, a thumb-sized leather mother-and-child doll; and for Mattie, a small ceramic pig with real gold inlays. When the magic starts to take effect, the girls’ longed-for wishes carry unintended, and unwelcome, consequences. Several disasters later, the friends fear that their ritual is working against them. Can they break the spell before their problems spiral out of control?

Wonderfully funny and absorbing, Discovering Pig Magic captures the everyday lives of three quirky, engaging girls, and shows that some wishes may be better left unfulfilled.

ISBN
9781571316844
Publish Date
Pages
200
Dimensions
5.25 × 8 × 0.5 in
Weight
8.5 oz
Cover Art

Praise and Prizes

  • “Discovering Pig Magic is about secrets and power and love and fear, and about defying other people’s expectations to become the person you want to grow up to be. Both comic and serious, this promising debut appeals to lovers of magic as its engaging trio of characters learns to sort faith from fake.”

    Julie Schumacher
    author of Dear Committee Members

  • “A steady, sweet, and quiet book, full of humanity.”

    Minneapolis Star Tribune

  • “Be ready to be charmed by Discovering Pig Magic, a delightful coming of age tale centered on the lives of three seventh-grade girls. Julie Crabtree’s style is refreshing to read. The modern lingo employed makes Mattie’s world utterly believable. The girls in this book are independent, willful, and resourceful—an excellent literary choice to have on the curriculum.”

    Feminist Review

  • “Discovering Pig Magic is a reflection on friendship, responsibility, and hope.”

    School Library Journal

  • “The value of friendship and honest emotions permeate this novel, as the characters discover who they are and how they can be there for their friends.”

    KLIATT

  • “Julie Crabtree’s portrayals both of the charm and power of friendship and of the internal emotional life of a young teen are deft and complex, and her confident pacing never drags.”

    Kirkus

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