I quite enjoyed this children's book.

The Little Grey Girl (The WIld Magic Trilogy, Book Two) was well-written with exceptional well-crafted characters.

Synopsis:
The old queen and her raggedy witches have fled Witches Borough, and Mup’s family has moved into the cold, newly empty castle. But the queen’s legacy lingers in the fear and mistrust of her former subjects and in the memories that live in the castle’s very walls.

While Mup’s mam tries to restore balance to a formerly oppressed world, Mup herself tries to settle into her strange new home with her dad, Tipper, and Crow. When an enchanted snow blankets the castle, Mup’s family is cut off from the rest of the kingdom, and the painful memories of the old queen’s victims begin to take form, thanks to a ghost whose power may be too much for even Mup and Mam to handle.

Celine Kiernan weaves a timely and essential truth into the second book of her trilogy: that dismantling oppression means honoring the pains of the past, and perhaps the most potent magic of all is encouraging joy and hope wherever possible.

Another case of a book being pt.2.( I really need to read more carefully..) But as I understand from other reviewers, the book works well as a stand alone, and it does, but I like to read series from 1-?. Anyway, the story is a good one and I think middle grade kids will enjoy the series. There's magic and witches and curses and ghosts- kids will love it! Still time to make it a summer read!

It's moving day for Mup Taylor, her mam, dad, and little brother Tipper now that the old queen, Mup's grandmother, and her band of raggedly witches have been defeated. Of course, the old queen and her raggedly entourage aren't dead, just gone - but for how long is anybody's guess. Now, though, it's off to the magical Witches Borough in the Glittering Land, leaving the mundane world behind, to live in the old queen's enormous castle. But no sooner do they arrive but there's trouble. Mam wants to run the Witches Borough as a democracy, but the people who sided with her instead of the old queen expect her to accept the crown and rule them, more kindly than her mother had, but still as a monarchy.

The castle is big and cold, and there are a number of ghosts living there as well a real people. Mup has her own room across from her best friend Crow's room. Crow is a shapeshifting boy who can transform into a raven. He has apparently lost his parents, but for all that he wants to be a part of a family like the Taylors, he also wants to be free. And he has difficulty dealing with Mup's raggedly witch magic. It is that kind of magic that been used to force the people of the Glittering Land into submission.

Even before she has settled into her new home, she notices a girl around her age lucking in the courtyard near the tunnel that leads to the dungeons where Mup and her dad had been kept by the old queen. The girl, who has a grey tint to her specter, turns out to be a ghost hellbent on causing vengeful trouble for the castle's new occupants, especially Mup. Using her own ashiness, the grey girl draws pictures around the castle which causes anyone who goes near them be come paralyzed with overwhelming grief. Is the grey girl part of the old queen's plan to defeat her daughter and return to power? It certainly seems so, especially when it begins to snow so heavily it isolated the people in the castle and feels like a curse from the old queen.

I loved reading Begone the Raggedly Witches and couldn't wait to read The Little Grey Girl. And boy howdy, I was not disappointed. Most of the story takes place in or around the castle grounds, including the dungeons under the castle, which makes sense since this book doesn't really continue the power tug of war between the old queen and her daughter. Forbidden to use magic under the old queen's oppressive rule, the residents of the Witches Borough are at a loss for who they are as a people now that they can use their innate magical abilities.

I was very happy to see that Kierman has kept all the characters true to who they were in the first book. Tipper, enjoying life in the shape of a dog, is just as adorable as ever, while Mup, mam, and dad are the same kind, concerned, and caring people and Mup's courage in confronting the dungeons to discover what is motiving the little grey girl to unleash so much suffering on the castle's residents is admirable. Crow is still a most conflicted character, not sure what he really wants, but always loyal to Mup, even when they have a falling out.

Once again, Kiernan has tackled familiar themes of strong family ties, true friendship, as well as the disastrous affects of oppression on people individually and as a whole, themes that will resonant all too much with today's world.

Oh, yes, and the good news is that Book Three, The Promise Witch, is scheduled to be released in England on June 4, 2020, which gives everyone plenty of time to read, reread, and savor Begone the Raggedly Witches and The Little Grey Girl.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an EARC gratefully received from the publisher, Candlewick Press, and NetGalley.

After defeating the Raggedy Witches and banishing the Queen, Mup’s mother, Mup and family have moved to this world permanently. Mup’s powerful mother has to rebuild a kingdom beginning with regaining trust of the people and it looks like the Queen has cast a curse on the land. Meanwhile Mup is the only one to see a shadow of a little grey girl who darts about scribbling on the walls. Turns out she is a ghost or spirit who has for many many years, absorbed the sadness, grief, and turmoil of those in the dungeons. Touching those scribbles paralyzes anyone near with grief. It’s up to Mup to save everyone.

I dearly loved the first book in the series. It was unique, witty and engaging. As with most second books in a trilogy, this one lacked zing. We already know the world and characters, so there is nothing new. This story takes place over a day or two at most. There is very little of any of the characters except for Mup. The plot really didn’t set things up for the next book – it just was. I still highly recommend the first book, Begone the Raggedy Witches, but this second book has little to offer in furthering the story. I look forward to reading the next book to see if the excitement from the first book can be recaptured.

I received a gratis copy of this book through NetGalley.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first tale in this middle grade fantasy series, <i>Begone the Raggedy Witches</i>. It introduced Mup, an intelligent, compassionate girl whose father is kidnapped--by her maternal grandmother, a witch and cruel despot who is trying to lure Mup's mother back home. I don't think it's too much a spoiler to say the family survived, and is now trying to settle into their new magical home. This is where <i>The Little Grey Girl</i> begins, and to my surprise, I enjoyed it even more than the first book.

The first book spent a great deal of time exploring the dark, quirky realm and its citizens. <i>The Little Grey Girl</i> is about the long-term consequences of a dictatorship. That sounds like a heady theme for a middle grade book, and it is--and the novels handles it with impressive grace. Mup's mum doesn't want to rule or be anything like her mother, but the people in this magical realm don't understand the concept of democracy. They want strong leadership. And as much as they suffered under the grandmother's rule, there is comfort in familiarity. They lived under strict rules about magic for many decades: only the raggedy witches were allowed to become elite and explore their full powers, while regular folks could shapeshift--but only into specific creatures. If they didn't, well. They suffered. They died.

This is where the book truly awed me. Mup encounters the little grey girl and quickly realizes she must be a ghost, but the reason she's a ghost--and why she's doing what she is--emerges with a perfect pace. Again, the book delves into heady stuff: death, suffering, and erasure--being oblivious to or forgetting the horrors people have endured. All of this is handled with respect and grace.

Of course, the book isn't all serious. Mup is full of brightness. Her voice shines. Her baby brother still insists on being in dog form much of the time. Her parents are wonderful, loving people; this book never brought up the interracial nature of the family, but I still love how the first book casually mentioned that Mup's father is Irish and his parents came from Nigeria.

Truly, this series handled so many things in a lovely way, even as it's a fantastic fantasy adventure. I sure would have loved these books as a kid, and I'm glad I get to enjoy them as a grown-up, too!

Oh, my heart.

This one got off to a bit of a shaky start with me, perhaps because I hadn't read BEGONE THE RAGGEDY WITCHES first, but by the end .... it's almost impossible to describe. THE LITTLE GREY GIRL is achingly sad, fierce and beautiful and humming with wild magic. It is also an exploration of trauma, and how difficult it can be to conquer intangible things like fear and rage.

Celine Kiernan's writing is lyrical genius. I felt utterly sucked into this gentle yet scarred world, with its cursed snow and sinister moons. The trauma echoed through every aching word, and I've got to hand it to the author - she doesn't shy away from talking about how terrible that traumatic past is. We have tortured children and oubliettes, ghosts and monsters built from repressed fury, but we also have MUP. We have Crow. We have Tipper. We have a new generation of hope, and I loved these characters and their fierceness dearly, even when (perhaps especially when) they made the wrong choices. I was particularly impressed by the inclusion of Mup's parents. Sounds strange, but it can be difficult to integrate parental figures into a MG adventure - usually they're either absent/dead or function strictly as blocking characters. But Mam and Dad are powerful players in their own right, even though it's ultimately up to Mup to save the day.

Occasionally I felt the emotional arcs were too tangled. Mup in particular jumped from one strong feeling to another very quickly, and it was a bit jarring. But later, emotional manipulation became a plot point, so it's not an unforgivable flaw.

tl;dr: A lovely dark fantasy, and I imagine it only gets better when you're familiar with the series. 4/5.

I definitely enjoyed this one more than the first, a decent middle grade magic and witches novel, but not my favorite. Like enough to continue and recommend, and if you love middle grade with witches or ghosts, I bet you’d enjoy this one.

Kiernan introduced Mup, Mam, Dad, Crow, and Tipper in Begone the Raggedy Witches last year, and now follows that wonderful debut with a continuation of the same story. After having defeated the Raggedy Witches and dethroned the wicked Queen, Mam moves her family into the other world and takes up residence in the old Queen’s castle. Once there, Mam struggles with the need for a Queen expressed by the people, since she wants to do everything different from how her mother, the old Queen, ruled. There’s no question that Mam has the power, but does she have the will to rule?

At the same time, Mup is struggling to understand her place in this new world, and come to terms with her own power, which sparks from her fingertips. Mup can sense that something isn’t right, and Kiernan does an excellent job of communicating not only Mup’s feeling of being out of place but her powerful sense of something bigger being wrong.

The juxtaposition between Mup’s happy family and the residual sadness, anger, and fear left in the old Queen’s castle is made more powerful by the cursed moon and snow the old Queen sends to disrupt the land. Throw in an unhappy ghost, a confused Raggedy Witch, and a friend who feels betrayed and you have a story that will keep you reading well into the night.