Trillium Sisters 1

June 1, 2021

Gr 1-3-Eight-year-old triplets Emmy, Clare, and Giselle are planning a surprise to celebrate the day their veterinarian father found them in the woods and made them a family. Their dad has a special "Founding Day" gift, too: a charm for each of them in the shape of a trillium flower petal, found alongside them (and their animal companions) when they were babies. When their little brother Zee tries to help with the surprise and ends up in serious danger, the charms magically combine, giving each girl a superpower. Once Zee is safely rescued, the sisters' newly discovered powers wear off, leaving them and readers with more questions than answers-ostensibly to be explored in future installments. The story is plot driven and, aside from Zee's rescue, largely unresolved. Character development is wanting; with little to make each protagonist distinctive, all three of them feel more or less interchangeable, and secondary characters are flat as well. Much of the dialogue is exclamatory, contributing to the markedly cheerful tone of the writing. In the cover art, the sisters are depicted in varying skin tones, though they are never described in the text; interior illustrations are rendered in grayscale. VERDICT The upbeat tone and mysterious origin story may attract some readers, but this series opener lacks substance. Those with a taste for superpowers or magic are better served by series like Kara West's "Mia Mayhem."-Lauren Strohecker, McKinley Elem. Sch., Elkins Park, PA

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2021
An origin story for mysterious, magical triplets. Eight-year-old triplets Emmy, Clare, and Giselle celebrate Founding Day--the day their veterinarian father, Dr. J.A., found them--instead of a birthday. Each girl has a baby animal pet (bear cub Claw, wolf pup Fluffy, and eaglet Soar), feels a special connection to trillium flowers for their three petals, and is indistinguishable from her sisters aside from occasional telling-not-showing characterization and illustrations that render Giselle as a girl of color while the rest of the family presents White. On their eighth Founding Day, their father, upset to see that the trillium patch where he first found his daughters has been uprooted, diverges from their traditions to replant the flowers and to reveal that there's more to the original Founding Day story than he's told them. Back then, a large trillium flower glowed before bursting into sparkles and leaving trillium petal charms behind that Dr. J.A. now gives to the girls. Later, when Emmy and their younger brother, Zee, go to pick strawberries, Zee falls into a river. The triplets work together to try to save him, but it isn't enough until the charms activate, giving the girls superpowers and new outfits, and making their pets huge. Although the woodsy setting (especially their treehouse home) and animals charm, the blandness of both characters and plot falls short of magical. In the simultaneously releasing sequel, Bestie Day, freed from the burden of expository backstory, the plot (a White bully and her subservient, Asian-presenting best friend endanger bees by cutting too many wildflowers) gets moving faster but offers only marginal improvements. Hopefully future installments will carry some substance. (Fantasy. 7-9)

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