Yxavel Magno Diño (The Serpent Rider) artfully entwines enchanting magic, a resilient young sorcerer, and high-stakes action in her Filipino mythology-inspired middle-grade fantasy The Firefly Crown.
Mayumi, or "Yumi," is a 12-year-old sorcerer who can communicate with and control crickets. "Cricket mambabarangs" are born with the ability to understand crickets and have certain cricket-like abilities, such as jumping large distances. Except Yumi's talents haven't shown up yet, meaning she is useless in her family's pest removal trade, compelling crickets to leave farmers' fields. Yumi is tired of embarrassing herself and her family with her lacking abilities and would much rather do something she is good at: metalsmithing. If she can just get to Tinanglawan, the empire's capital, she can find a master to apprentice under. But, as Yumi's mother tells her, "the imperial city is no place for Crickets like us. Tinanglawan is filled with other mambabarang who outrank us by far. They'd only look down on you."
Then all the magicians are summoned to Tinanglawan to attend the imperial heir's coronation, where First Daughter Eyrin will receive the "Firefly Crown." This crown amplifies Firefly magic and helps stave off the "Ghost Swarm," a threatening "entity of dark energy" made up of "the ghosts of all the insects that had ever lived." The "Crowning" has barely begun when the crown disappears and Yumi is blamed for stealing it. To prove herself innocent, Yumi decides to find the real culprit, hopefully before the Ghost Swarm destroys the empire.
Diño's delightful fantasy is packed with action and threaded with themes of self-worth, self-acceptance, and economic disparity. The imaginative magic system rooted in insect hierarchies masterfully provides sharp social commentary on class and privilege. As a Cricket, Yumi is in the lowest class of mambabarangs and has powers that are insignificant when compared to other mambabarangs: Dragonflies move quickly and fly; Fireflies have the "near-mythical" power to manipulate light.
The insect-based magic also offers rich visuals to accompany Yumi's adventure, such as wolf spiders running up walls or "the decay of a hundred years setting in within the space of heartbeats" in the wake of an army of ghost insects. These images sit alongside thrilling close calls, nail-biting action scenes, and a rollicking quest to find a royal traitor. A thrilling adventure with an important message: never doubt yourself. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader
Shelf Talker: In this delightful, imaginative, Filipino mythology-inspired middle-grade fantasy, a lower-class sorcerer must prove her innocence when a magical artifact goes missing.