SECRETS OF THE MAGIC GLASS

In Sano’s middle-grade novel, an awkward, science-loving girl comes face to face with death for the first time.

Camden, Maine, elementary schooler Andie is more comfortable around books and science experiments than she is around other people. Her mom is distant and her classmates bully her; she’s only close with her grandpa, whom she calls Papa. Just as Andie is gearing up to start a school science project about an ant farm, Papa receives a cancer diagnosis that leaves him with only three months to live. Instead of acknowledging her grief and fear, Andie focuses on her ant farm—with a little help from a magical magnifying glass that she acquires from a local antiques shop. With two turns of the instrument’s handle, Andie can shrink down to the size of an ant in her farm…or even that of a microbe on the surface of Papa’s skin. (“She was pretty certain her transition had broken several laws of physics, and after several failed attempts to theorize a plausible scientific explanation, she was forced to conclude the unthinkable. ‘It must be magic!’”) As Papa’s cancer progresses, Andie hatches a long-shot plan to cure him by harnessing the forces of the microscopic worlds that she now frequently visits. As she struggles to come to terms with Papa’s illness, Andie learns to let other people into her life and to let go of what she can’t control. Andie’s experiences aren’t for the squeamish, but her stubbornness and condescension make her a realistic, flawed protagonist who may be relatable to other young readers confronting death for the first time. Sano provides little explanation for the magic glass’s origins, but the novel is paced swiftly enough that readers are unlikely to be confused. Her pen-and-ink illustrations at the head of each chapter are light, sketchy, and sometimes a bit less polished than the text itself.

An emotional and visceral depiction of a young girl growing in the face of grief.