Mup’s grandmother ruled Witch’s Hollow in the world of magic with cruelty. Mup’s mam does not want to lead the same way, but has a hard time building trust. And although Mup’s grandmother may have been defeated she isn’t altogether gone. Watching Mup’s family through the eye of the moon, she sends a curse down on the castle where they now reside: snow that won’t stop, muffling everyone’s magic. There’s a threat inside the castle grounds, too: The ghost of a girl whose scribbled drawings are full of sadness so great that anyone who sees them begins weeping uncontrollably, or rage so fierce that they are at risk of losing control. The girl was witness to the suffering in the castle dungeons under Mup’s grandmother. Once she consoled prisoners with her compassion, now she is full of hatred for Mup’s family. As the adults fall under the spell of the snow and the girl’s powerful drawings, Mup and her friend Crow must come up with a way to stop her. The second book in “The Wild Magic” trilogy that began with Begone the Raggedy Witches continues to examine cruelty and pain, the corruption of power, and the power of forgiveness in a forthright, astonishing story featuring a biracial (Black/white), courageous young girl. (Ages 8–12)

In the second book of the Wild Magic trilogy, courageous young Mup and her family are trying to heal and restore the kingdom when they uncover an ancient and powerful anger.

The old queen and her raggedy witches have fled Witches Borough, and Mup’s family has moved into the cold, newly empty castle. But the queen’s legacy lingers in the fear and mistrust of her former subjects and in the memories that live in the castle’s very walls. While Mup’s mam tries to restore balance to a formerly oppressed world, Mup herself tries to settle into her strange new home with her dad, Tipper, and Crow. When an enchanted snow blankets the castle, Mup’s family is cut off from the rest of the kingdom, and the painful memories of the old queen’s victims begin to take form, thanks to a ghost whose power may be too much for even Mup and Mam to handle. Celine Kiernan weaves a timely and essential truth into the second book of her trilogy: that dismantling oppression means honoring the pains of the past, and perhaps the most potent magic of all is encouraging joy and hope wherever possible.