BOOKS
The Crepemakers' Bond, the highly anticipated sequel to Discovering Pig Magic, will be released in Fall 2010.
The Crepemakers' Bond chronicles Ariel, Mattie and Nicki's final year in junior high. Just when the girls think their lives have finally settled down, Mattie finds out she has to move away. The girls devise a plan to keep the three friends from being separated, but it backfires horribly. Narrated by Ariel, who is outspoken, funny, and totally obsessed with cooking, The Crepemakers' Bond explores the true heart of friendship, in all its fragility.
Accolades
Winner of the 2008 Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature
“Discovering Pig Magic is about secrets and power and love and fear, and about defying other people's expectations to become the person you want to grow up to be. Both comic and serious, this promising debut appeals to lovers of magic as its engaging trio of characters learns to sort faith from fake.”
- Julie Schumacher, author of several books, including The Book of One Hundred Truths.
Discovering Pig Magic was also named a "Debut to Watch" by Publishers Weekly.
After reading Discovering Pig Magic, the editors of the American Library Association's Knowledge Quest magazine for 2008-2009 chose Julie to write a column - An In-Depth Analysis of Modern Academic Honesty: The Sparkly Princess Poo Theory - Published in Knowledge Quest magazine vol. #37, issue #3: January/February 2009.
Discovering Pig Magic has been selected for the Accelerated Reader Program. You can learn more about grade level, Quiz Availability and more here.
Reviews
Kirkus Review - "First-person narrator Mattie, just 13, and her closest friends Ariel and Nicki find themselves trying to negotiate the wide chasm between childhood and adolescence with a bit of magic. Each girl has a worry, from Mattie’s mother’s agoraphobia to Nicki’s baby brother’s defective chromosome syndrome and Ariel’s worry over a plagiarized, contest-winning recipe. Their ritual burying of important small objects (a pig figurine from Mattie’s collection, Ariel’s antique spoon, Nicki’s doll) is meant to free them from their worries and solve their problems, but as events progress their fears seem to multiply. In the end it’s clear that the greatest power the girls have is their friendship for each other and their growing insight into what they can and can’t control. Crabtree's portrayals both of the charm and power of friendship and of the internal emotional life of a young teen are deft and complex, and her confident pacing never drags. (Fiction. 10-14)"
Minneapolis Star Tribune - "Life is not going as planned for 13-year-old Mattie, and there's just one thing to do. She and her two closest friends gather for a secret burial ritual, purging themselves by tossing prized objects into the earth. But the plan fails. Life gets grittier. Only by digging deep into herself will Mattie find her way out. Despite tough themes, including a mother hooked on computer games to mask a painfully evident depression, Discovering Pig Magic, winner of the 2008 Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature, is a steady, sweet and quiet book, full of humanity."
KLIATT Reviews of Selected Books
Flamingnet Young Adult Book Blog
In the News
Northeast Middle School in Minneapolis reacts to Julie's recent author visit.
Julie featured in The Daily Triplicate, the local newspaper of Crescent City, California.
Article from the Sierra Star, a newspaper in Julie's hometown, Oakhurst, California.
Available Now!
Discovering Pig Magic is currently available in both hardback and paperback editions. The Crepemakers' Bond, the sequel to Discovering Pig Magic, will be published in Fall 2010 by Milkweed Editions. Click here for a preview.