The Secret Science of Magic

by Melissa Keil

Overview

From award-winning author Melissa Keil comes this heartwarming tale of unconventional romance, perfect timing, and finding your own magic.
Meet Sophia: former child prodigy and 17-year-old math mastermind. She's been having panic attacks since she learned that after high school, former prodigies either cure cancer or go crazy. It's a lot of pressure. So Sophia doesn't have the patience for games right now. She especially doesn't have the patience to figure out why all these mysterious playing cards keep turning up inside her textbooks. Meet Joshua: highly intelligent, cheerfully unambitious, and an amateur magician. He's Sophia’s classmate, and he's admired her for as long as he can remember. He thinks the time is perfect to tell Sophia how he feels. He doesn't know how wrong he is …
This long-awaited follow-up from the author of Life in Outer Space is perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and David Levithan, and anyone who believes in making friends with the freaks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682630143
Publisher:	Peachtree Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/01/2018
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	611,989
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Melissa Keil, born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, studied cinema and anthropology and has spent time as a high school teacher, Middle-Eastern tour guide, waitress, and IT help-desk person. She now works as a children’s book editor, and spends her free time watching YouTube and geek TV.

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2018
Gr 7 Up—Sophia is a math prodigy who has a hard time connecting with people; as a result, she has one best friend. They do everything together, but stay mostly within Sophia's comfort zone as she tends to panic otherwise. Josh, a magician, believes that Sophia is the girl for him. He initiates a conversation with her to test out this theory. When she begins to finally notice him, he attempts to impress her with his magic skills, but her responses aren't what he imagined. Sophia thinks that she's a freak because of her photographic memory, intelligence, inability to express emotions, and poor social skills. But this novel isn't about saving her; it's about her coming to terms with herself and moving forward despite her fears. Although the book has a dual-perspective story line, it is skewed two-thirds toward Sophia's point of view. This Australian import has a few terms that some American readers might find difficult, but it's not too hard to decipher from the context. There is some mild swearing. Neuroatypical characters, nerdiness, social anxiety, intelligence, and magic make this book stand out among other contemporary romances. VERDICT A general purchase for most middle school collections.—Jennifer Rummel, Cragin Library, Colchester, CT

School Library Journal

2018-01-22
A quirky high school romance unfolds in the alternating voices of math whiz Sophia and aspiring magician Joshua.Sophia's social awkwardness forms the crux of the plot. Joshua is not anyone's typical boyfriend but is madly in love with Sophia. Josh and Sophia end up going to a party together, where their budding relationship sparks, but it fizzles soon after. Keil adds in a couple of wacky friends and difficult siblings to amplify the drama. The book's Australian origins explain the numerous references to its pop culture, and Keil's fans will be excited to see Sam and Camilla, of Life in Outer Space (2013), make an appearance. The story intricately explores the teenagers' quirky relationships and the notion of what it takes to feel comfortable in one's own skin. Sophia's character is authentically geeky, and readers will empathize with her anxiety. Although that aspect of Sophia's character is well-plumbed, however, her South Asian culture gets short shrift. There are multiple references to Sophia's brown skin, and her best friend, Elsie, is Indian, but their South Asian identity is not built into the story in any meaningful way, and some readers may feel that the acute lack of parents in the story is rather contrary to prevalent South Asian cultural norms.A meandering story sadly lacking the right dose of magic. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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