And Alma didn’t know how to say that to Cassie.
“Great pick!” Alma’s cousin and best friend, Del, said. “That purse is really special.”
Alma’s littlest cousin, Evie, ran to get the ladder so she could be the one to climb up to get the purse. Their family cat, Fraidycat, bounded behind her. Fraidycat was always curious, and Evie was always doing something that made her extra-curious. Maybe Evie was Fraidycat’s something special.
Alma had been thinking the purse was her something special. She had been the first person to see the purse. She’d been helping Abuelita go through bags of donations and the purse had been at the very bottom of one. At first, Alma thought it was weird. Maybe even ugly. But the more the purse hung in the window, the more beautiful it became.
Alma loved having the purse in the window. It reminded her that even though she didn’t believe in magic the way Del did or the way Abuelita did—which was a whole lot—she believed things were not always what they seemed. She believed that something ordinary could become something special. And she believed that maybe, someday she’d be the kind of person who could use a magical-looking purse like that.
Alma was thinking all that, but it sounded too silly to say out loud.
“It’s very expensive,” Alma said to Cassie instead of all the other much truer things she wanted to say.
“I looked at the price tag,” Cassie said. “It’s going to be perfect for all the end of the school year stuff—the parade and the picnic and everything else. I can put my sunglasses in it. And books. And a hat.”
Evie came back with the ladder. She was grunting and gasping, pulling the ladder through the store all by herself. Fraidycat swung her tail around, as if she was helping, too. “I’ll get the purse for you!” Evie said excitedly. Fraidycat meowed in agreement.
“We should ask Abuelita if the purse is really for sale,” Alma said. She knew she sounded silly. The purse was hanging in the window! Of course it was for sale!
It was too late, anyway. Evie was scrambling up the ladder and Cassie was counting out her money and Del was heading to the back to get Abuelita to ring it up.
Alma kept trying to think of a way to explain why she wanted that purse to stay put. She wanted to be able to say loving that purse made her feel more like the rest of her family at 86 ½ Twenty-Third Avenue. She wanted to tell them all how special she felt when she was the one who found it. And how when it glittered a certain way, it made her think maybe Abuelita was right, that magic was everywhere.
“¡Qué maravilloso!” Abuelita said when she saw the purse on Cassie’s shoulder. And Abuelita was right, the purse was truly marvelous. It was just what Abuelita had said when Alma had first shown it to her. “It really suits you.”
Alma thought she might cry.
She wanted Abuelita to tell her that the purse suited her. She wanted someone to think she should have a sparkly and plaid and flowery and stripy and polka-dotted purse.
Alma wiped away a tear. She swallowed hard. She tried one more time to think of the right words to explain to everyone why Cassie shouldn’t have that purse.
But no one even noticed.
Cassie was too happy looking at her brand-new purse. Del and Abuelita and Evie were too busy admiring how the purse looked on Cassie.
As usual, Alma was quiet.
She watched as Cassie skipped out of the Curious Cousins Secondhand Shoppe.
“I thought it was supposed to be mine,” Alma said. But no one heard.
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 toddler daughter, who already loves being brave, her abuelita’s cremita, and dressing up for costume parties. 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.
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Books by Corey Ann Haydu
Hand-Me-Down Magic #1: Stoop Sale Treasure
Copyright
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
HAND-ME-DOWN MAGIC #2: CRYSTAL BALL FORTUNES. 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, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art © 2020 by Luisa Uribe
Cover design by David DeWitt
ISBN 978-0-06-287827-4 — ISBN 978-0-06-297826-4 (pbk)
Digital Edition JUNE 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-287828-1
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-287827-4
2021222324PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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