Hoffman, Alice. Incantation. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2007. 166 pages. (Historical Fiction)
Estrella deMadrigal thought she knew her whole life and everyone in it. Her lovely mother who made the most beautiful yarn out of the plainest wool. She went by the name of Abra deMadrigal. Her father had died many years ago when she was only young and her mother spent a lot of time missing him. Abra always wore a ring on her left hand that Estrella’s father had given her. Then, there was her harsh grandmother who never talked to Estrella, except when she was doing something wrong. She had always been afraid of her grandmother, Carmen deMadrigal. Then there was also her grandfather who never talked to Estrella either because he thought she was a worthless girl and wished that she was more like her amazing brother, Luis, who was studying in the seminary to become a priest. Estrella knew nothing about her life. She knew nothing about who she thought was her best friend; even her religion was a mystery to her. The truth was, Estrella and her family were hidden Jews. She didn’t even know her name. Esther was her name from birth, and she was considered a Morrano, a pig, and Morranos were not welcome in Encaleflora.
I would recommend this book to people that were interested in learning about history. It had a lot of true historical material in it but it also had the emotions of a teenage girl who lives a lie.
Reviewed by: Jlee007
