Once again author Wendy Mass takes us back to the magical town of Willow Falls in her latest novel, Graceful. This time around we learn more about Grace, a young girl who is learning to cope with some newly found magical powers as well as adjust to the notoriety that brings. From nervous parents to speculative classmates, the only thing that gets her through the day sometimes is the support from Team Grace. This team is a group of kids that have been drawn together in an almost magical way and they also can all sense or do magic; they all want to help Grace with her mission that came with the new powers. This is a great novel about friendship, trust and building up others. The ‘voices’ of each of the characters are realistic and easy to relate to, even in the throes of teenage drama. As a reader I found myself cheering for Grace and her friends as they worked together to overcome obstacles.

While Mass’ writing is captivating, this is a series that would warrant reading in order. Having read the first book in the series, 11 Birthdays, I knew a little of what was going on, but I felt I was missing a lot of the back story and characters referred to events from other books.  Also, I found the switching characters for each chapter as well as style (letter, text messaging, poetry, etc.) took a little getting used to. All in all though it was an enjoyable and somewhat magical book, this sadly ends this series.

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Scholastic

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  None

Sex/Nudity:  Boy and girl hold hands (2 times); boy and girl embrace; secondhand account of boy and girl holding hands.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death of family member, paranormal/magic.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None