LIKE MAGIC: Creating a Treasure Box
Best Users: Librarians, Little Free Libraries
Best Audience: Children Grades 03-06
About the Activity
In the middle grade novel Like Magic by Elaine Vickers (HarperCollins), three lonely tween girls find friendship through a book-shaped treasure box in their library. Inside the box’s lid is printed the message,
Take this treasure,
Leave one of your own,
And remember this truth:
You are not alone.
The girls borrow the “Amicitia” box and leave each other origami stars, poems, music, and art postcards. Through the sharing of these small treasures, the girls create a connection and eventually meet.
Imagine having this friendship-building book on your shelves! A template was created to allow you to decoupage a book treasure box from standard craft store supplies.
Will you shelve it? Circulate it? Will you create a place for connections?
DOWNLOAD
Like Magic: Treasure Box
(PDF)
The template was created with illustrator McKinsey Lewis. Kinsey is also the creator of the book trailer!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Like Magic
By Elaine Vickers
Spot Illustrations by Sara Not
Published by HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN-13: 9780062414311
Ages: 8 – 12 Years
This sweet middle grade novel featuring a diverse cast of characters proves that friendship can be just around the corner.
For three ten-year-old girls, their once simple worlds are starting to feel too big. Painfully shy Grace dreads starting fifth grade now that her best friend has moved away. Jada hopes she’ll stop feeling so alone if she finds the mother who left years ago. And Malia fears the arrival of her new baby sister will forever change the family she loves. When the girls each find a mysterious treasure box in their library and begin to fill the box with their own precious things, they start to feel less alone. But it’s up to Grace, Jada, and Malia to take the treasures and turn them into something more: true friendship.
“A treasure box—and a dash of whimsy—unite three 10-year-old girls, each struggling to cope with changes in her family life…Without ever meeting one another, the girls develop a rapport by taking turns borrowing an ornate box from the public library, removing a personal “treasure” left by the previous user, and adding a new memento. Keeping the box circulating among the trio is an intuitive, possibly enchanted, elderly librarian who understands that what the girls need most is friendship. Debut novelist Vickers has created three appealing, diverse characters with distinct talents and voices; librarian Hazel is an affectionate spin on fairy-tale crones…Just right for sensitive tweens, this is a sweet story of friendship and learning to cope with common fears and life changes.” —School Library Journal
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“Grace, Jada, and Malia overcome fear and loneliness with the help of a mysterious treasure box…An endlessly endearing story of three girls’ pursuit of friendship and the beauty and challenge of what it means to be 10.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
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