WORDS ARE MAGIC

A young child goes on a magical adventure to find his self-confidence.

Elliot is ready to end the day and go to bed, but his adventures are just beginning. As he falls asleep, the young Black boy finds himself transported to a dark, lonely wood. He is so scared that he begins to cry, only stopping when he hears a mysterious voice whisper his name through the trees. It isn’t until a moment later that the voice, which sounds like his mother, tells him, “Say what you have, you’ll have what you say. You have just what you need to find your way.” At first, Elliot doesn’t understand this message; he feels as lost as ever. Slowly, a mantra of his mother’s comes to mind (“Words are magic!”), and he realizes that he has the power to conjure light, a compass, and more to help guide him back to his parents’ loving arms. The lessons Elliot learns are that he must believe in himself, and that the answers to his problems have been within him all along. However, because Elliot’s self-doubt wasn’t adequately established in the beginning of the story, the impact of this triumph is somewhat diminished. Still, his realization is powerful, and his actions are well supported by the illustrations (credited to RIPE Publishing House) that exquisitely depict the sylvan night and the family’s radiant love. The play between light and dark brings out Elliot’s own luminosity as he learns to believe in himself, while small marks indicating movement bring energy to the page. This is Jackson’s first literary work for children and would best be shared with preschool and kindergarten fans of books like I Am Every Good Thing (2020).

An inspiring, beautifully illustrated, if occasionally uneven, portrayal of inner strength.