Bella Santini in the Land of Everlasting Change, by Angela Legh, is a children’s fantasy adventure that blends fairy-tale magic, a hidden world, magical-school fantasy, and a coming-of-age story with a surprisingly thoughtful look at emotions. Fourteen-year-old Bella would rather spend her summer painting than camping with her parents, but a mysterious light leads her into a fairy realm where she’s arrested, questioned by the Seelie Court, and eventually sent to Yelimoon Fairy School. What starts as a strange detour quickly becomes a much larger discovery about Bella herself. She may have entered this world believing she’s human, but the magic around her keeps suggesting there’s much more to her story.

The fantasy world is colorful and busy in a way younger readers can easily picture. There are fairies with shimmering wings, magical spells, enchanted mirrors, a fairy tribunal, trolls gathering in the woods, an ancient chalice, a formerly stone gargoyle named Torvieto, and even a parallel realm inhabited by emotions. Yelimoon gives the book its magical-school adventure energy, while Bella’s initiation trials create a clear series of challenges that keep the story moving. One of my favorite stretches is her search for the Chalice of Keani, which turns into a genuine fantasy quest filled with puzzles, danger, strange magic, and some clever problem-solving from Bella.

What gives this children’s fantasy novel its own personality, though, is the way emotional growth is built directly into the adventure. Bella learns about fear, sadness, frustration, calm, trust, friendship, bullying, and the stories people tell themselves about who they are. Those ideas aren’t confined to conversations. In Emovia, emotions actually become forces Bella and Torvieto have to navigate, so techniques such as breathing, calming yourself, examining fear, and trusting your own judgment become part of surviving the quest. Bella also changes in believable ways. The girl who begins the book irritated with her parents and determined to stay inside painting gradually discovers courage, loyalty, resourcefulness, and a much greater sense of what she might be capable of.

There’s plenty left unresolved by the end, and that works well for the opening book of a fantasy series. Ginekei and Ashworth are still moving pieces into place, the trolls are gathering, Bella’s royal connection is becoming harder to hide, and even Bella doesn’t yet understand the truth about her identity. At the same time, this first adventure gives her a satisfying arc of its own. She arrives in the Land of Everlasting Change feeling frightened and powerless and finishes surrounded by friends, aware of her growing magic, and more willing to trust herself.

Readers looking for a middle grade fantasy, fairy adventure, magical school story, or children’s book about emotional intelligence will find all of those elements woven into Bella’s journey, with enough mystery waiting in the wings to make the next installment feel like a natural continuation.

Pages: 190 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0FS6HZY8K