Wildseed Witch is an adventurous and inspiring coming-of-age story about a young Black girl discovering her magical abilities and learning to embrace her unique identity.

This is a very nice debut novel with some great world building. I love the look into the magic meets tech version of New Orleans with a finishing school for young witches and Creole influences. I wish more time could be spent in this world building. There's a lot crammed into the last quarter of the book.
Thank you very much to Abrams Kids and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the published for giving me an advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I just finished Wildseed Witch by Marti Dumas a day or two ago and found it so refreshing. Hasani is looking forward to spending the summer growing her makeup YouTube channel when her anger over her father's new girlfriend friend releases a magic she didn't know she had. This results in a invitation to a special summer charm school for witches. As witch from a nonmagical family, there is so much she doesn't know, and her standoffish roommate and inability to control her magic don't help.

🌸Full of BIPOC characters, I loved the magic of charm, the flowers, animals, and how the magic is integrated with technology. I also loved all the details of Creole life and heritage. Finally the acknowledgement of enslavement grounds the book in a way that makes the magic even more special.

Middle school me would have ate this one up. It’s full of representation and the story was pretty interesting. It’s also very relevant to our current middle schoolers with our main character wanting to be a popular Youtuber.

Hasani wants to be a youtube star! But everything maybe ruined when her father doesn't want to repair their family and she is given a chance to attend an exclusive summer program. Les Belles Demoiselles seems to be an amazing opportunity but if Hasani cannot control her gift she may destroy her life. The Wildseed Witch is a fast paced contemporary fantasy novel bursting with magic. While the plot is fast paced and entertaining, not much of the book happens in the school and leaves the reader with a thin understanding of it. If the book had slowed down and expanded on the school and classes it could have given more depth to the story and characters.

Really enjoyed this book. It was short and sweet. The book was younger but still really nice. I love the all black cast and beautiful natural grown girl on the cover. Definitely reccomend

I was drawn to the book because of the beautiful cover and was sucked into the story. After Hasani is discovered to have magical powers, she is whisked to a charm school for gifted girls. Unlike many of the other students, Hasani is a wildseed, an untrained individual from a family of non-witches, and this leads to difficulties with fitting in at school and bullying.

There is so much that happens in the book from Hasani finding out her dad is dating someone new to trying to become an influencer to learning she is a witch. I usually prefer fewer subplots so sometimes it felt overwhelming to me. However, the subplots helped to make Hasani relatable, which is one of the best parts of the book. She wants to grow her social media following. She wants to make friends. She wants to find where she belongs. She also makes mistakes and tries to learn from them. She immediately reminded me of my nieces, which prompted me to purchase a copy to gift them.

The book is not as whimsical as the cover suggests, but I enjoyed it. I would love to learn more about the magic system and continue to see Hasani grow. She is a realistic protagonist who will be relatable to many of today’s youth.

This is a fun and silly little mid-grade that will fit some readers like a glove. If social media and magic are your thing, the sweet magic that represents as flowers will charm your senses. Just don't expect to go too deep, this is a light read.

What an amazing book. I’m so happy this is the start of a series. It is hard not to be addicted to the techy and witchy lives of these characters. Hasani and her friends are so great and supportive and I loved reading about their experiences at Les Belles Demoiselles. I cannot wait to read more from this author.

I believe the middle schoolers I used to teach would really like this one. It was about magic sure, but also the acceptance of parents getting divorced and working through personal issues. I learned a lot about influencing on YouTube. lol. Overall, it was a cute book.

Thank you so much to @Netgalley for this advanced reader's copy for an honest review.

I thought that this book was a lot of fun and very thoughtful. Hasani is a very relatable and likeable character that has flaws, insecurities, and also amazing strengths, thus making her an awesome protagonist. You see how she learns to navigate exclusive social groups within her school, forming friendships and facing obstacles within them. You also see her grow personally within domains in her life, be it: accepting responsibility, learning to live with difficult family dynamics, and learning how to forgive others (and herself). Additionally, I enjoyed the incorporation of Creole heritage and New Orleans/Louisiana history into the book.

In regards to pacing, the first half of the book is pretty easy to fall into as you learn about Hasani and her background and I felt like this was fairly quickly paced. Towards the middle it was a bit slow, but then it picked right back up again in the last third of the book.

I’m looking forward to reading more in the series as I want to learn more about how the magic system works and know the range of Hasani’s potential magical capabilities. My cat Olivia and I would also like to see more cat appearances in the future! And, gosh, Erick Davila is such a talented artist. This author illustrated the covers for: The Inheritance of Zoraida Cordova, With the Fire on High, and Clap When You Land (among others!)- I can’t wait to see what book cover number 2 will look like.

I definitely recommend this book and hope you will enjoy it! It’s perfect if you would like a book about young witches that ultimately shows character development, friendships, and family.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The protagonist in this story is 13-year-old Hasani Marie Schexnayder-Jones. She has made plans for her summer vacation, which includes gaining up to 100 subscribers on her YouTube channel and getting her divorced parents to reconcile. While Hasani is able to make progress with her first goal, her second goal seems unattainable especially after she learns her father is dating, and it’s getting serious. In fact, while Hasani is out with her father, her emotions get the better of her and she “feels magic” at the same time a drawbridge gets stuck. After that disastrous visit, a woman arrives at Hasani’s mother’s house with some news: Hasani is a powerful witch, and she’s been invited to attend Les Belles Demoiselles: Finir l’École des Sorcières for 6 weeks.

Hasani, being a young teenaged girl, learns very quickly that what she believes she knows about magic is not the magic she is being taught at Les Belles Demoiselles. And, Hasani underestimates how powerful she is and how her magic “influences” her inner circle: her parents, her classmates, and other witches. In fact, Hasani is warned about what to expect after camp is over—if or when she graduates—amongst the numerous covens (in Louisiana).

"Wildseed Witch" is a different, yet cute take on Black Girl Magic. This middle grade novel presents their characters both as witches and as tech savvy individuals. Marti Dumas’ urban fantasy and Louisiana love is a must-read for any readers who wants to read about a “magic academia setting” beyond Hogwarts and Camp Half-Blood.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Oh my goodness! I LOVED this story. I ate it up in 2 days! The main character is young and learning how to accept things that are out of her control, which, to be real, we've all been there. Then you throw magic into the mix of family challenges, school differences, and an uncertain summer and voila, an incredibly compelling story! The story has great rises and falls, and I was pleasantly surprised to know there was was more to the story after the mid-book climax, since it was complete enough that I would have been satisfied if the story ended there. But there was more, and it added another layer to the book. I truly hope there is a sequel, and whether it is the same protagonist or another, I will be excited to get my hands on it!

Thank you NetGalley, ABRAMS Kids, and Amulet Books for the ARC.

The perfect magical book for every young black girl!

Hasani learns she's a witch while spending her summer on YouTube tutorials and mistakenly exposes her magical powers. This event captures the attention of witches and quickly enrolled into a secret school for people like her.

One thing I loved about this book is that it is filled with BIPOC characters, superb writing and a magical experience.

I'm disappointed because I went into Wildseed Witch excited to see how Marti Dumas told the promised story, but it ultimately didn't work out for me. I think this book was trying to do too much that it just kind of failed at all of it. I ended up jumping through the last half to sort of see what happened, and it's all pretty forgettable too. I hope this book connects with other people and that I'm just not the right reader for it.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

Cute fun MG book. I loved the magical elements and the fun story. I would definitely recommend. Also the author does a great job at world building .

Surprisingly, I loved this book! I loved the kittens, the kitten charm magic, the growing of hair, the specialized flowers for every witch, and the message behind it. I loved it as a middle grade read!

Really enjoyed finding a BIPOC main character in a magical boarding school story. The writing was great but the story felt a little scattered to me, like the author wasn’t sure where the story was going to go next.

The storyline and writing for this book is very age appropriate which is a very good thing. The writing was simple and easy to digest. Unfortunately, those were also the reasons I had to DNF this book, the story was just too simplistic for me.