What the heck is Magical Realism?

YA booktalk for middle and high school students

From Merriam-Webster Online:

Definition of magic realism

1 : painting in a meticulously realistic style of imaginary or fantastic scenes or images

2 : a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction —called also magical realism

In short, magical realism is…ODD eerie

creepy

Magical realism in picture books:

Magical Realism in classic literature:

*Many consider One Hundred Years of Solitude to be the most defining book in the magical realism genre.

Magical Realism in classic

literature for children and

teens

Tuck Everlasting

If you had a choice, would you choose to

live forever?

The Indian in the Cupboard• Toy Indian comes to

life when the key is turned in the cupboard• Widely-criticized (and

sometimes challenged) for racial stereotypes

The Secret Garden

A spoiled, not-so-nice little girl goes to live

with an uncle she has never met after the

deaths of her parents.

Magical Realism in today’s YA literature…

Bone GapBeautiful small town girl goes missing. No

one is worried about it—people get tripped

up in Bone Gap all the time—and two

brothers get involved in the mystery.

The Cure for Dreaming• Oregon, 1900• Olivia’s father convinces

a stage mesmerist to hypnotize the rebellion out of Olivia• Instead, he gives Olivia

the ability to see people’s true natures

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Ava is normal in every way…except she is

born with the wings of a bird.

Every DayA is a soul that wakes

up in the body of a different person, every single day.

Places No One KnowsAn overachiever girl

falls asleep one night and dreams herself

into an underachieving, loser

boy’s room.

The Accident Season17-year old Cara fears the end of October, a time when her cursed

family becomes so accident prone that

people die every year.

Wake17-year old Janie

unwillingly gets sucked into the dreams of

others.

First book in the Dream Catcher trilogy.

Devil and the Bluebird

Blue Riley meets the devil, loses her voice, and fights to save the soul of her runaway

sister.

The Darkest Part of the Forest

Hazel and her brother Ben live at the edge of a fae-infested wood and

whisper their secrets to a horned boy sleeping in a glass coffin in the

woods.

The Nest

Steve ponders making a bargain with a wasp that promises to heal

his newborn baby brother…with a sting.