The Circle of Magic Quartet (1997-1999) by Tamora Pierce consists of Sandry’s Book (#1), Tris’s Book (#2), Daja’s Book (#3) and Briar’s Book (#4). Pierce is a prolific and beloved author, and the Circle of Magic is a beloved middle grade fantasy series that I missed out on because I was in my young adult time after college before kids when it was first published. It also probably had some competition with a certain she-who-must-not-be-named author of what became a very popular magical fantasy series of books and movies (and which is decidedly anti-fat).
I have to first give credit to Beautifully Bookish Bethany, who I came across on Goodreads, which led to watching one of her video reviews, I saw she was plugging a read-along for this series, which she noted had great representation, including a fat main character. So I was intrigued, and tracked down used copies of the series, since they are out of print. I’ve watched most of the read-along videos, which you can find on Youtube with the #circleofmagicreadalong, with the cohosts @BookishRealm @Shaegeeksout @andrewannotates @LocDBooktician @WildeBookGarden.
So now for the books! Each focuses on one of four tweens in a historical, magical time and place. Sandry is the orphan daughter of nobles, raised by her maid, and having the gift of being good with weaving, though nobles weren’t allowed to work with their hands. Daja is a Trader, the only survivor from a shipwreck, which makes her particularly unlucky and an outcast among her people. Briar is a street thief, an urchin who has been caught three times and headed for serious trouble when he’s rescued by Niklaren Goldeye, known as Master Niko. Finally Tris is the daughter of merchants, sent from place to place because her family doesn’t want her and it seems no one else does, either. When she gets angry, winds blow and hail falls, but she’s been tested and told that she has no magic.
The four kids are brought together to Winding Circle Temple, a school for Mages, in the land of Emelan, by Niko. None quite fit in at the dormitories, so they end up at a house called Discipline where Dedicates Rosethorn and Lark run the household. All are from different backgrounds, have their own traumas to deal with, and so it’s a little prickly among the four at first.
Briar finds out he has special powers when it comes to plants, and so he spends a lot of time in the garden with gruff Rosethorn. Sandry works with Lark on weaving. Daja goes to the blacksmith on an errand and finds herself drawn to working with metal–like nobles, traders don’t work with their hands but the blacksmith, Frostpine, sees someone with magic like his own in Daja. Niko himself works with Tris, teaching her to meditate and control her anger and, therefore, her magic. In fact, they all learn to meditate.
Near the end of the first book, Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar have become friends, and it’s a good thing, because Sandry has to use all of their magic to protect Winding Circle from an earthquake. In Tris’s Book, they are vulnerable to a pirate attack. In Daja’s book, there is a drought and forest fire. Finally, in Briar’s book, there is an epidemic they must deal with. All of the stories are well-done, taking place over a year. The characters are so real–from Briar being a tween boy who doesn’t want to bathe, to Tris’s believing there is something wrong with her because she hears voices, to Sandry reminding people of her noble heritage (using her privilege) when it’s necessary to protect the others, to Daja using her magic to save the people who made her an outcast.
There is great representation–Daja is described as having the brown skin of a Trader. Briar and Lark both have golden-brown skin and almond-shaped eyes. Tris is fat, and so there is some anti-fatness from people outside the core group, and some internalized anti-fatness she deals with, but she is the most powerful of them all, since she is learning to work with the weather–lightning, wind, and natural forces. And her friends or trusted adults don’t ever comment on her body size. Also, it’s never said, but implied that Rosethorn and Lark–both women–are a couple.
I highly recommend finding these at the library or used, because they are out of print. But Bethany has started a petition to bring them back into print–the issues they deal with are so relevant for today, and the stories show healthy relationships between friends, and between children and adults, with boundaries and self-care, before we really talked about those things in regular conversation.
Reading While Fat 