THE TARNISHED GARDEN

Long-separated orphan sisters bond as tensions rise over mysterious attacks on magic in early-20th-century Manhattan.

Following up on The Gilded Girl (2021), a riff on A Little Princess, Colman crafts a companion tale. Referencing Frances Hodgson Burnett’s titular secret garden, this entry is set in 1907 and centers on 11-year-old Maeve O’Donnell, younger sister of Izzy and struggling student at a new, controversial magic school that is—thanks to her sister’s heroic actions in the previous book—open to children of all social classes. Along with further developing the theme of class struggles (one of the school’s rabid opponents is tellingly named Mrs. Nimby), the author stirs in disturbing reports of magic being somehow burned up in certain buildings as well as a rash of disappearing house dragons (think talking magic cats) and a walled garden in the Tarnish tenements where three rare and superlatively cute dragon kittens are hiding. It’s in that garden (once she discovers it) that Maeve gets over not only her fear of her own uncontrolled magic by helping new friend Avi Sigal conquer his anxieties, but her conviction that her loving sister’s affections are being stolen by the previous episode’s co-protagonist, Emma Harris. Ultimately the mysteries all twist up into a tight, tidy climax that leaves the villain exposed and other storylines happily resolved. Most of the cast reads as White.

A sweet tale spun around friendship, sisterly love, and dragon kittens, with a nod to another Edwardian classic.