Children's Book

*****

The Jumbies

by Tracey Baptiste

This story brought out the child in me, the one who loved fairy tales, the one who was just a little scared of rustling sounds in the night.

Corinne lives at the edge of the forest with her father, a forest thought to be home to jumbies.  Jumbies are the spirits of the dead who play tricks on humans and occasionally lure them into the woods where they are never seen again.  Legend says that many years ago jumbies helped save men from ships stranded near their beautiful island.  But the humans soon began to take over the island, cut down trees from the jumbies' forests, and push the jumbies further into the woods.  The island was no longer theirs.  And they want it back!

Corinne thought she knew everyone on the island, but when she comes home one day and a beautiful stranger is chatting with her widowed father, Corinne feels something is terribly wrong.  When mysterious things begin to happen, the townspeople begin to fear jumbie magic is at work.  Corinne realizes it all started when the beautiful stranger appeared, and Corinne feels that, somehow, she is the one who must bring the jumbie magic to an end.

With the elements of a fairy tale throughout, the delightful chapter book weaves mystery, adventure, and magic into a great read-aloud book for 2nd-4th graders.

This was an advance copy provided by NetGalley

Available April 28, 2015