The Future of Magic School by Dhonielle Clayton
Many readers will identify with Dhonielle Clayton’s guest blog- that awe and wonder of magic and the eager anticipation of being invited to attend a magical school. Tackling diversity and inclusion as well, this is a brilliant guest post.
THE FUTURE OF MAGIC SCHOOL (A MAGIC SCHOOL FOR ALL)
I’ve spent my whole life chasing magic. I used to stare out the car window on the way to school every day, looking up at the clouds and wishing there was something up there, hidden and just out of reach. A place that was way more interesting than my school building.
I wanted nothing more than an invitation to magic school. This evergreen trope of children’s literature meant as a young reader (and librarian and teacher) I encountered many schools of magic … from Miss Cackle’s Academy for witches to Wizard’s Hall to Larwood House to Hogwarts, but very few of them contained pupils who looked like me or the students who came in and out of my New York City library every day.
The Arcanum Institute for Marvelous and Uncanny Endeavors grew out of all the missing kids in magic school … the ones who desperate to find themselves in hallowed, magical halls. It is the future of magic schools. A place where you could master brewing Indian spice elixirs, practice the art of Caribbean steel drum hypnosis, care for Chinese dragons, or practice bartering with pesky Irish pixies. A place where students wear translation crystals because every language is spoken. A place where all people from around the world could come together and share what’s marvelous about their culture and its traditions … with enough space for them.
It was important to me that all children could find their place in this universe and have the ability to self-insert and imagine themselves as a young Marveller headed to study in the skies or as a Conjuror trying to make their way. I watched my young students struggle to develop a relationship with literature because of the lack of representation in books. They were often afterthoughts and erased in other big, magic book franchises that took up so much space in the canon of children’s books. So I created this universe to remind all readers that they deserve magic no matter what.
However, in this very magical world, full of very different kinds of Marvellers, our main character Ella Durand, a Conjuror and not a Marveller, faces a huge challenge: she straddles two magical communities who have struggled to exist side-by-side. The Marvellian world is uneasy about Conjuror integration into their three flying cities and their prestigious school, because for over 300 years they’ve been afraid of how magic manifests in the Conjuror world. Conjure folk remain hurt by and suspicious of Marvellers, leaving many Conjurors torn about whether they should even share space with a group of people who have actively kept them out and ostracized them.
Though Ella is an extraordinary global citizen and up to the task. Always ready to offer a branch of friendship to anyone. Her presence at the Arcanum Institute lands her in an emotional, political, and social tangle, testing their promise as a school for all the magical kids of the world.
But with her big heart, she’s ready to face anything.
The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton, published by Piccadilly Press, out now
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.