Feels like two separate books. The first is about Joplin. The end of the book the focus shifts.

Enjoyed reading. ( )

I didn't know anything about this book when I started reading it (except that I like the author). It starts off contemporary realistic. There's a girl named Joplin who lives in New York City. Her famous eccentric grandfather has just died and she's being bullied about it at school (seriously, her classmates are so cruel). Joplin inherits her grandfather's broken antique painted pottery. It turns out to have magical properties and presents a mystery for Joplin to untangle.

Honestly, this is the kind of book I could probably take apart if I felt like it (the magic seemed to have a lot of holes in it and the heroes were impossibly precocious 12-year-olds) but I just enjoyed it. Joplin has a strained relationship with her single mother and her ache to feel close to her mom was palpable. When it came time to solve the problem presented by the magic delftware, it was worked out logically in a satisfying way.

This has a kind of fairy tale quality, but it's hard to explain without giving away the plot. Let's say there are aspects that made me think of [b:Ella Enchanted|24337|Ella Enchanted|Gail Carson Levine|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410727190s/24337.jpg|2485462]. ( )