The Spirit Glass

by Roshani Chokshi (Author)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents a standalone quest adventure based on Filipino mythology by Roshani Chokshi, author of the best-selling Aru Shah series.

Corazon yearns to finally start training as a babaylan (a mystical healer and spirit guide) under her powerful guardian, Aunt Tina. As soon as her magic awakens, Corazon plans to bring her parents back from the dead and no longer have to rely on a soul key to allow visits with their ghosts for a few hours every Saturday night.

But when a vengeful ghost steals Corazon's precious key, the fragile balance between the human world and the spirit world is thrown out of whack. Aunt Tina reveals that if Corazon wants her magic to awaken, then she must lay the ghost to rest by fashioning a new soul key. With her rather bloodthirsty gecko companion, Saso, Corazon embarks on a quest through the spirit realms. But they must move quickly, for if the ghost gets through the spirit glass, all hope will be lost.

Roshani Chokshi pays tribute to her Filipino heritage in this book that has all the magic, sparkle, and heart that made her Aru Shah series a fantasy classic.

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Hardcover
$16.99

Kirkus

A thrilling tale brimming with magic and love.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Featuring a Filipina protagonist coming into her powers, Chokshi (the Aru Shah series) writes a memorable spin on a tween's looking-glass adventures. Three years after her parents' deaths, 11-year-old Corazon Lopez lives with her magically powerful but emotionally distant aunt Tina in a wondrous House "that tucked her in each evening and made sure she always had a sweater when it got cold." Like the women in their family, both Corazon and Tina are babaylans--mortals who guard the boundaries between the human and spirit worlds--but two days before her magic-manifesting 12th birthday, Corazon's specific power remains unknown even to her. She waits impatiently on the cusp with her wisecracking companion anito, an earth spirit named Saso who resembles a blue lizard, and a soul key that allows her to visit with her parents' ghosts each Saturday. She plans to bring them back to life once she gains, and trains in, her powers, but when Corazon and Tina travel through the Library of Mirrors en route to the spirit realms' marketplace, a figure pursues Corazon and steals the soul key, and Corazon must work to put the worlds-threatening specter to rest. Filipino folklore and a smart magical system of "bargains and balances" thread this wholly original narrative, which employs laugh-out-loud humor, sensory-forward prose, and deliciously dark threats to explore personal identity and tweenhood. Ages 8-12. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Sept.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Praise for The Spirit Glass

"Roshani writes with the kind of electrifying wonder and sweeping grace that only she can! You will fall in love with Corazon and Saso."
—Kelly Yang #1 New York Times best-selling and award-winning author of the Front Desk series and New From Here

Roshani Chokshi
Roshani Chokshi (she/her) is the author of the instant New York Times best-selling Pandava quintet inspired by the Hindu stories she learned from her paternal grandmother. The first book in the series, Aru Shah and the End of Time, was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time magazine. Rosh also wrote the New York Times best-selling Star-Touched and Gilded Wolves series for YA readers, and The Last Tale of the Flower Bride for adults. One of her motivations for writing The Spirit Glass was to honor her Filipino heritage on her mother's side. She lives in Georgia. Follow her adventures on Instagram @roshanichokshi.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781368093392
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Rick Riordan Presents
Publication date
September 05, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
JUV012060 - Juvenile Fiction | Legends, Myths, Fables | Asian
Library of Congress categories
Magic
Ghosts
Novels
Mythology, Philippine

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