And a heartfelt thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to the Haydu, Scallon, Maldonado, Olavarria, Borrero, Ross, and Spokes families. This is a book about family, and mine has always been bookfilled and cozy and is also newly big and boisterous, and it all makes me smile.
Excerpt from Hand-Me-Down Magic #2: Crystal Ball Fortunes
Alma and Del’s magical mishaps and fun continue in Hand-Me-Down Magic #2: Crystal Ball Fortunes.
Read on for a sneak peek!
1Delightful and Daring
-Del-
There were only sixteen hours to go before Del’s Delightful and Daring Dress-Up Party. She had been counting down the hours for an entire week. Everyone participated in the countdown because Del loved birthdays and Abuelita loved hosting parties and the whole family loved cake and party hats and singing one round of “Happy Birthday” followed by one round of “Feliz Cumpleaños” at the top of their lungs.
“How many people are coming?” Alma asked. She was putting together goody bags for the guests. She’d helped Del pick out stickers and sparkly pens and three different kinds of chocolate. “This seems like a lot of chocolate.” She gestured to the enormous pile. Their littlest cousin, Evie, couldn’t stop eyeing it. It was so tall that Alma couldn’t see over the top of it from her seat at Abuelita’s kitchen counter. It was so tall that Evie had named it Chocolate Mountain and said they should keep it just like that forever.
“Like, a million people,” Del said. “Pretty much everyone ever. And they’re all going to be dressed up! I can’t wait to see what they’re all wearing!”
“A million?” Evie repeated. She was bouncing up and down on her toes. “Really?”
“No, not really,” Del said. She rolled her eyes at Alma. But Alma looked nervous, like she thought there really might be a million people shoved into Abuelita’s apartment tomorrow, too. “More like twenty. But still. That’s a lot. That’s more than were at my party last year. But I’m going to be another year older, so it makes sense.”
“Twenty is a lot less than a million,” Evie said, huffing. “You’re not very good at math, Del.”
“Not as good as you, I guess,” Del said, laughing.
Evie thought about this. “Do you think I’m good enough at math to count all these chocolate bars?” she asked.
“Why don’t you try?” Del said. Evie started counting pieces of chocolate very loudly. So loudly, in fact, that Abuelita and Titi Rosa came into the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about.
Abuelita made a startled noise—“Oh!”—and smiled. Del and Alma turned to see what she was looking at. She was facing the window that looked out at the backyard. And right there, perched on the birdbath, was a little black kitten. She was dipping her paws into the birdbath, then shaking them off, over and over, like she was trying to figure out something very important. “What a darling gatito!” Abuelita said. “¡Hola, mi gato!” she called out to the kitten.
The kitten jumped in surprise, and the jump made her stumble all the way into the birdbath with a cute kitten-y splash. Del thought the kitten might be scared, taking that fall. But instead she seemed interested in the water. She licked it. She pawed at it. She jumped out of it, then right back in.
Del had seen a lot of stray cats before, but never one that acted anything like this one.
“It’s time to start winding down,” Titi Rosa said, directing them away from the window and the now-very-wet kitten.
“But we have so much decorating left to do!” Del said.
“And so much chocolate to eat— I mean count!” Evie said.
“I’ve never been to a delightfully daring dress-up party,” Alma whispered to Del. She sounded nervous.
“Don’t be a fraidycat!” Del said. “This party is going to be perfect.”
“I hope so,” Alma said. “And I’m not a fraidycat. I just get scared of new things sometimes.”
“How can you be scared when you’re going to be wearing this!” Del ran to the closet where she’d been storing her big surprise: two big fluffy boas. They’d been planning their costumes for the party for a while, but this would be the perfect addition, Del was sure. She wrapped the orange boa around Alma and the blue one around herself.
“What can go wrong when you have a boa?” Del asked. She twirled her blue boa and did a little birthday dance.
Alma pulled her boa more tightly around herself.
“Trust me,” Del said. “Tomorrow will be the best day ever.”
About the Author and Illustrator
Photo credit Jessie Weinberg
COREY ANN HAYDU is the author of Eventown and other acclaimed novels for children and young adults. She grew up in the Boston area, earned her MFA at the New School, and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her new daughter, who will certainly grow up loving New England lakes, her abuelita’s empanadas, and stoop sales. Find out more at www.coreyannhaydu.com.
Photo credit Manuela Uribe
LUISA URIBE is an illustrator and designer of children’s media. Her art has been selected for Iberoamérica Ilustra, a catalog showcasing the best work by Spanish-speaking illustrators. She was awarded the Society of Illustrators Dilys Evans Founder’s Award for The Vast Wonder of the World. She lives in Bogotá, Colombia, with her partner and cat.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
HAND-ME-DOWN MAGIC #1: STOOP SALE TREASURE. Text copyright © 2020 by Corey Ann Haydu. Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Luisa Uribe. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced,
