Rogelia's House of Magic Book

IN ROGELIA’S HOUSE OF MAGIC, three different 15-year-old girls find friendship and special powers as they are trained in the ways of the curandera by a wise old woman.
When Rogelia becomes a maid at Marina Peralta’s home, it’s obvious to Marina and her friend Fern that they have a real mystic on their hands. Soon Rogelia agrees to teach the girls the magic of their ancestors, much as she taught her granddaughters, Xochitl and Gracielia. Even though Marina and Fern are thrilled to have this chance to understand and use their powers, Xochitl isn’t happy about sharing such a sacred thing with anyone but her sister, who perished in a car accident. Besides, magic has let Xochitl down before. Why wouldn’t it now? But, as the girls will eventually discover, at Rogelia’s House of Magic anything is possible.

KLIATT

Parents who hated Harry Potter because of its reliance on magic will also hate this book. In actuality, this novel is more chica lit about spoiled Latino girls who dress in name-brand clothing, obsess over nail polish, and don't seem to have much better to do than attempting to cast spells with sometimes dire and unexpected results, until a true wise old woman takes them in hand. In doing so, they befriend the maid of a social-climbing Mexicana real estate agent and her devastated granddaughter whose identical twin has just been killed. All three girls have magical powers like becoming invisible, seeing auras, and hearing voices of the dead. One could argue that this book celebrates Mexican culture, i.e., the healing arts as practiced by wise curanderas, but on the other hand, it's so silly and well, boring (except maybe if you're a teenage Latino girl aspiring to be a material girl in America, and you think a little benign magic wouldn't hurt) that it doesn't exactly inspire awe at the Mexican tradition. This book comes complete with recipes at the end for a few homemade spells if the reader is "a beginner and a believer." These spells are so devoid of any "harmful content" that they're not much different than advertisements in Seventeen, inasmuch as one incantation is for "silky smooth skin." One is for "charging a crystal wand" (Why? Not explained), and one for gaining confidence, which the believer does by chanting, "I believe in myself to do what I must do." Sound familiar? Like maybe Tony Robbins, a well-known Mexican curandera, and writer of many best-selling self-help books. Reviewer: Myrna Marler