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Callie LeRoux is choking on dust. Just as the biggest dust storm in history sweeps through the Midwest, Callie discovers her mother's long-kept secret. Callie's not just mixed race—she's half fairy, too. Now, Callie's fairy kin have found where she's been hidden, and they're coming for her.
While dust engulfs the prairie, magic unfolds around Callie. Buildings flicker from lush to shabby, and people aren't what they seem. The only person Callie can trust may be Jack, the charming ex-bootlegger she helped break out of jail.
From the despair of the Dust Bowl to the hot jazz of Kansas City and the dangerous beauties of the fairy realm, Sarah Zettel creates a world rooted equally in American history and in magic, where two fairy clans war over a girl marked by prophecy.
A strong example of diversity in YA, the American Fairy Trilogy introduces Callie LeRoux, a half-black teen who stars in this evocative story full of American history and fairy tales.
Supports the Common Core State Standards.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
June 26, 2012 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780375983184
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780375983184
- File size: 2200 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 4.6
- Lexile® Measure: 700
- Interest Level: 6-12(MG+)
- Text Difficulty: 3
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Reviews
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Kirkus
April 15, 2012
A mixed-race girl in Dust Bowl Kansas discovers her long-lost father isn't just a black man: He's a fairy. Callie has been passing as white her whole life, helping her Mama in rundown Slow Run, Kan. But now it doesn't seem to matter that she keeps her "good skin" out of the sun and softens her "coarse" hair, because it seems everyone's left the dust-choked town. Even Mama is gone now, vanished in a preternatural dust storm that summoned a strange man who tells Callie secrets of her never-met father. Soon Callie's walking the dusty roads with Jack, a ragged white kid. If Callie's dad is a fairy, then the two young'uns will just have to go to fairyland to find him. Callie and Jack dodge fairy politics and dangers, from grasshopper people to enchanted food to magic movie theaters--but the conventional dangers are no less threatening. Plenty of run-of-the-mill humans in 1935 Kansas don't like black girls or beggars, hobos or outsiders. With a historical note and a Woody Guthrie soundtrack, this novel does a fine job of blending a splendidly grounded Dust Bowl setting with a paranormal adventure. It's really too bad that the cover art depicts a white girl with flyaway hair, rather than Callie as written, a mixed girl who stops passing as white halfway through the story. Callie learns to be open about herself but her own cover art doesn't. This cracking good mixture of magic and place will leave readers eagerly awaiting the sequel. (Fantasy. 12-14)COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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School Library Journal
June 1, 2012
Gr 6-9-Calliope LeRoux begins hearing voices the day her mother vanishes into the swirling dust of the worst storm in Kansas history. From Baya, a mysterious stranger she rescues from the deadly tempest, Callie discovers that she must travel to California to find her parents. She also learns that her father, whom she's never met, is a fairy who aggravated a feud between warring tribes by running off with her mortal mother. Moreover, there exists a prophecy about a half-blood girl with powers to manipulate doors between worlds, and it seems that Callie fits the bill. As she is pursued by dangerous otherworldly creatures and accompanied by Jack, a hobo boy with his own agenda, her quest becomes increasingly deadly. Much weighs on her success. The story of warring fairy factions is not new, nor is that of the fae girl who is instrumental in their fate. Yet, Zettel puts a fresh, imaginative spin on the old tale. Period details about the Depression-era dust bowl supply an authentic, atmospheric feel, as does the first-person narrative. Nonstop action will keep readers hooked. Some loose threads remain, but these will hopefully be knitted together in sequels.-Alissa J. LeMerise, Oxford Public Library, MI
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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The Horn Book
May 1, 2012
"We're not in Fairyland! We're in Kansas!" exclaims Calliope, but as it happens, she's wrong and right. In this story, Kansas is Fairyland. The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and Celtic fairy-lore come together when Callie, daughter of the owner of a small hotel in Slow Run, Kansas, discovers that when she really gives herself over to making music, the fairies come after her. Then her Mama is whisked away in a whirl of dust and magic, and Callie sets off to retrieve her. But as Callie and Jack, fellow traveller and companion, traverse the prairie fleeing supernaturally voracious locusts, a brutal "vigilante man," and starvation itself, Callie learns she's of royal fairy stock (her long-absent father being not just a charming African American jazz musician but a prince of fairyland). Zettel cleverly uses the folk songs and jazz of the period in this atmospheric 1930s Americanization of Celtic folklore. Racial issues are treated rather obviously (Callie is half black; Jack's Jewish), and the story's plot turns are at times both too familiar and too fabulous -- but even so this is an intelligent, imaginative concoction with a vivid setting and an engaging protagonist. deirdre f. baker(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
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The Horn Book
July 1, 2012
The Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and Celtic fairy-lore come together when Callie learns that her long-absent father was not just a charming African American jazz musician but a prince of fairyland. When her Mama is whisked away in a whirl of dust and magic, Callie sets off to retrieve her. An intelligent, imaginative concoction with a vivid setting and an engaging protagonist.(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
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Formats
- OverDrive Read
- EPUB ebook
Languages
- English
Levels
- ATOS Level:4.6
- Lexile® Measure:700
- Interest Level:6-12(MG+)
- Text Difficulty:3
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