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Amari Peters knows three things.
Her big brother Quinton has gone missing.
No one will talk about it.
His mysterious job holds the secret . . .
So when Amari gets an invitation to the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain this is her chance to find Quinton. But first she has to get her head around the new world of the Bureau, where mermaids, aliens and magicians are real, and her roommate is a weredragon.
Amari must compete against kids who’ve known about the supernatural world their whole lives, and when each trainee is awarded a special supernatural talent, Amari is given an illegal talent – one that the Bureau views as dangerous.
With an evil magician threatening the whole supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she is the enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t pass the three tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton . . .

Thank you to Egmont books for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fantastic middle grade book filled with magic and wonder. It follows Amari Peters, who is a young Black girl with a missing older brother. She finds out early in the story that her brother belonged to a top-secret magical organisation, and that she has a chance to attend the same magic school her older brother did.

I love how this book tackles subjects such as race and class from the first chapter, and also introduces the topics in a way very accessible to young readers. I feel like so many people will relate to Amari as a main character and it’s so lovely to see more diverse main characters. Amari faces all kinds of oppression throughout this book and is still such a brave, confident and strong female protagonist – we need more people like her in middle grade!

You’re not going to change the world 

This is the kind of middle grade that everyone will find enjoyment in. I found it so easy to read and loved the action, and I feel like children will find it so fun and entertaining. Despite being quite a long middle grade at almost 400 pages, this doesn’t feel like a long book at all as it’s a very quick one to get through with constant action and change in pace. There are so many different ways this story could go, and I’m excited to see where this series will head.

I love how this book tackles some harder topics without feeling like it is trying to combat them. These topics were woven in very naturally and will be brilliant for younger readers. This book was also so jam packed with magic and uses some great fantasy tropes we know really well to create a fresh and interesting story.

unless you hang with people who want to change the world too.

Overall, I can’t wait to see where this series goes and I loved the introduction to Amari – I think she’s going to be such an important protagonist but also has such an entertaining story!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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