At Juniper\u2019s school in the city, bullies\u2014seen in the shadows but apparently white\u2014taunt the young girl. On a day devoted to celebrating students\u2019 heritage, they tell her she doesn\u2019t know where she comes from. Juniper\u2019s mojo bag, tucked in her pocket, doesn\u2019t keep the bullies at bay. But soon enough, she packs up empty mason jars and travels to Grandma\u2019s house down South. During \u201crootwork summer,\u201d Grandma teaches Juniper about the wisdom their ancestors brought from Africa, when \u201cwhite folks stole us and caged us on boats set for America.\u201d Grandma explains that these newly arrived Africans sought wisdom from their own ancestors, \u201c[weaving] the magick of home deep into their bones\u201d as they harvested tree sap and gathered mushrooms. As Juniper learns about these practices\u2014known as hoodoo\u2014and the powers of different plants, she adds bits of items to her mojo bag and fills her jars with herbs. And when she returns home in August, she feels ready to face the bullies, armed with the knowledge of who she is. McBride\u2019s shimmering prose (Grandma\u2019s home is \u201clike a ship sailing in a sea of herbs\u201d) immerses readers in Juniper\u2019s experience, while Encarnaci\u00f3n\u2019s illustrations make powerful use of light and shadow to redefine what glows. Their perspective on the Black diaspora brings something truly new to children\u2019s literature.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At Juniper\u2019s school in the city, bullies\u2014seen in the shadows but apparently white\u2014taunt the young girl. On a day devoted to celebrating students\u2019 heritage, they tell her she doesn\u2019t know where she comes from. Juniper\u2019s mojo bag, tucked in her pocket, doesn\u2019t keep the bullies at bay. But soon enough, she packs up empty mason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}