Come See the Fair by Gavriel Savit

Abstract

Reviewed by: Come See the Fair by Gavriel Savit Fiona Hartley-Kroeger Savit, Gavriel Come See the Fair; illus. by Mildred Hankinson. Knopf, 2023 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593378663 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593378687 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-7 Exploited by her caregiver, orphaned Eva poses as a medium who can communicate with the spirits of the dead—until one night, prompted by a summons in her dreams, she makes a break for Chicago and the World’s Fair. There Eva and artistic new friend Henry find the Pavilion of Magic, presided over by the mysterious, elusive Mr. Magister, who takes Eva under his wing. Even as the magic she’s faked all her life blossoms within her grasp, Mr. Magister’s past apprentices haunt the Pavilion’s wondrous halls, and Eva gradually confronts the true purpose of the Pavilion. Brash and grimy, burned and rebuilt, Savit’s (The Way Back, BCCB 9/20) 1893 Chicago is a period set piece straight out of a Sandburg poem, and he skillfully entwines magic with filaments of science. If the fantastical spaces sometimes loom large over the characters moving through them, Eva is nevertheless a potent protagonist well accustomed to treading lines between the living and the dead. Savit’s writing is lyrical and witty, and the whole thing is a sumptuous historical spectacle haunted by the price of wonder. Unfortunately, scant attention is given to more problematic aspects of the World’s Columbian Exposition, including the fact that the fair was held to celebrate American exceptionalism and by extension 400 years of colonial oppression and genocide of indigenous peoples. However, paired with supplemental material on those elements, this offers educators the chance to encourage readers to ponder: if magic has its cost, what are the human and ecological costs behind the Fair’s other wonders of progress? Copyright © 2022 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois