Evangeline of the Bayou
By Jan Eldredge
Illustrations by Joseph Kuefler
2018, Balzer + Bray
(HarperCollins Publishers)
Review by Debra L Scott, 2/28/2018
I fell in love with this middle grade book from the first page. A young girl, up late at night doing her homework identifying jars of carcasses and scat, hears a tapping on the window: a sparrow has a message for her. Evangeline decides she can handle this problem without waking up her grandmother/teacher. It turns out to be just a bit more involved than she anticipated!
But this is just the beginning of the tale of a fearless girl with a bayou sized helping of overconfidence. She is almost 13, and nearly ready to become a full-fledged haunt huntress, which the locals called a swamp witch. Surely the council understood all the mishaps that occurred in the past were not all her fault!
“Just because Mr. Broussard’s clothesline full of laundry had been splattered with dirt and brown water the time she’d detonated that Mississippi mud man, and just because she might have been responsible for the collapse of Mrs. Mercier’s front porch during the unfortunate galerie goblin situation, it didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of dealing with this new case on her own.”
She just needs to find her familiar and prove to the council she has the heart of a haunt huntress, like her mother, her grandmother, her great-grandmother, and so on. Her mother died when she was young, so it fell to her grandmother to raise her and teach her the traditions and skills of the women of the family.
After taking care of the spooky critters referenced in the sparrow’s message, Evangeline’s grandmother tells her to get ready for a job in New Orleans. From the uncharacteristic nervousness of her grandmother, and because of an ominous omen she receives, Evangeline realizes this will be no run-of-the-mill supernatural critter hunt. It’s going to be huge! The stuff going into grandmother’s bag is rarely used and only as a last resort…
What follows is a well-crafted mystery with unexpected twists and turns and page turning intensity. Sensitive children may find it difficult to handle, as there is death, magic, and betrayal by trusted adults. But if the child can handle the battles between Harry Potter and Voldemort, they will certainly enjoy this thrilling story. (The back cover also references similar works by authors Kate DiCamillo, Sheila Turnage, and Natalie Lloyd)
I cannot comment on the illustrations as they were just roughed in for this advanced reader’s edition. The book will be released 5/1/2018.
(This review is based on an Advanced Reader’s Edition, Illustrations are roughed in)
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