{"id":44968,"date":"2025-03-01T21:43:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T02:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44968"},"modified":"2025-03-01T21:43:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T02:43:51","slug":"review-of-a-little-like-magic-by-sarah-kurpiel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=44968","title":{"rendered":"Review of A Little Like Magic, by Sarah Kurpiel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A Little Like Magic<\/em><\/p>\n

by Sarah Kurpiel<\/p>\n

Rocky Pond Books (Penguin Random House), 2024. 44 pages.
\nReview written February 28, 2025, from a library book.
\nStarred Review
\n2025 Schneider Family Award Winner, Younger Children<\/p>\n

Here’s a gorgeous picture book that features a kid in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

The child and their mother (probably a little girl, but the gender is never specified) are headed to an ice festival to watch the sculptors work, but they don’t want to go.<\/p>\n

I don’t like heavy coats
\nor itchy hats
\nor boots that don’t let me bend my ankles.
\nI don’t like cold wind
\nor icy roads.
\nMost of all, I don’t like going places that I’ve never been before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Still, they go, bringing a special toy horse in their pocket. They watch the sculptors work, using chainsaws, drills, chisels, picks, torches and steaming irons.<\/p>\n

They watch until they are too cold, then have hot chocolate together. The child isn’t convinced it’s worth it to make sculptures that are going to melt anyway.<\/p>\n

And to their dismay, the little horse is no longer in their pocket when they get home.<\/p>\n

But then the next day they go back after dark. Now the sculptures are finished, and they’re magical and wondrous.<\/p>\n

The cold and crowd melt away. There is only light and ice and stars and Mom and me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, yes, they find their toy horse – along with a special surprise. That’s the best part of all.<\/p>\n

In the end, they realize that even though the sculptures melted, they never really went away because they’ll always remember their magic.<\/p>\n

This is one of those quiet, lovely, wonderful books that you love more each time you read it.<\/p>\n

sarahkurpiel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Picture_Books\/little_like_magic.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Little Like Magic by Sarah Kurpiel Rocky Pond Books (Penguin Random House), 2024. 44 pages. Review written February 28, 2025, from a library book. Starred Review 2025 Schneider Family Award Winner, Younger Children Here’s a gorgeous picture book that features a kid in a wheelchair. The child and their mother (probably a little girl, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,21,15,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-winners","category-contemporary","category-picture-book-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44983,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44968\/revisions\/44983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}