The Healing Spell (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Healing Spell Karen Coats Little, Kimberley Griffiths. The Healing Spell. Scholastic, 2010. 355p. ISBN 978-0-545-16559-4 $17.99 Ad Gr. 4-7. Livie's mother is a coma, and Livie's father is convinced that being in a familiar place surrounded by people who love her will speed her recovery, so he brings her home against doctor's orders. Livie is horrified with this development, especially since she secretly blames herself for the accident that put Mamma in a coma in the first place. She has mixed feelings when Aunt Colleen and her son Thibodaux arrive; Aunt Colleen is a nurse, so she can help take care of Mamma, but she's also sort of bossy and nosy, and Livie is afraid her aunt will figure out Livie's secret guilt. Livie does what she can—lighting candles at church and seeking out the help of a folk healer who lives in the swamp near their bayou home—but she can't bring herself to touch Mamma, who never seemed to love her as much as she loves Livie's more girly sisters. The folk healer gives Livie a spell that requires her to collect nine good memories of her mother and weed out the bad ones, a process that she completes while tending to a baby 'gator, frog-gigging with her dad, fighting with her cousin, and helping her sister get ready for her Cajun-style wedding. Livie's mother's coma is a clearly contrived and medically implausible event, and the bold interest of a local boy is conveniently timed for maximum narrative utility. Livie's need to appreciate her mother and develop from a grumpy tomboy preadolescent to a more complexly realized gender identity is really what effectively drives the narrative engine. It's difficult to place Livie's story in time, but the fully realized sense of place adds dimensionality and atmosphere as Livie and her dad pull life from the bayou; readers interested in exploring ways of life from various regions will likely find Livie's daily activities on the water intriguing. Copyright © 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois