Bitsy and her best friend Kosh are having a regular sleepover – playing Mario Kart and recording the next episode of Bitsy’s local news podcast (which much to her disappointment, the most exciting news she has to report on includes odd-shaped vegetables and potholes). Bitsy feels disappointed and wants more than anything to live up to her deceased mom’s legacy of being a world-famous news reporter. But their evening gets turned on its head when a gorilla-sized rodent called a Grobble crashes into her house, eating everything in sight. They overhear Bitsy’s dad arguing with a strange woman, and watch as he summons his own magicore – a Wayworm charged with protecting the kids at all costs. Then in an instant the woman has kidnapped Bitsy’s dad and vanished into thin air.

Bitsy and Kosh, who have (up until this point) led “regular” lives, are now faced with the impossible – can they follow the clues available hiding in Bitsy’s house into this magical world to save her dad? They discover a world beyond their wildest imaginations based on conjuring magical creatures called magicores, which are made from the energy of emotions. They find themselves at the heart of a conflict between different groups of conjurers that goes back centuries. A conflict so engrained in conjurer culture that it ostracized many from society, tearing apart families and loved ones in the process. They are also forced to question everything – including who they can trust. Bitsy finds herself following in the footsteps of her mom, and discovering there was so much more she didn’t know.

This story is a thrilling adventure to read. Beyond the fantastical creatures, it includes deep friendships, long-lost family members, questioning of established systems, and bringing people together to resolve conflict against all odds. Recommended for ages 8 to 12 (3^rd to 6^th Grade). Cream of the Crop nominee.

Reviewed by: Jenn Mead, Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library, Lovell