Pencilvania, by Stephanie Watson

 I still have lots of great books read for the first round of the Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction Cybils to review...and so I'm squeezing on in this morning to include in my regular EMG spec fic Sunday roundup.

Pencilvania, by Stephanie Watson (August 2021, Sourcebooks), illustrated by Sophia Moore, is a moving portal fantasy that will especially appeal to creative young readers.

Zara has been drawing all her life.  Encouraged by her mother, she fills sketchbook after sketchbook, and the walls of her house are covered with her drawings.  But then her mother gets cancer, and dies.  Zora and her little sister Frankie have to live with their grandmother, who is almost a stranger (in a basement apartment, in a different town). The spark of Zora's passion for art, so closely tied to her mother,  fizzles out.  Instead, in her anger and grief, she starts to furiously scribble over all her old drawings, destroying her old life.

But this destruction opens the way into the world of Pencilvania, and Zora and Frankie find themselves in a place where everything that Zora ever drew, including pictures of their mother, is alive.  Pencilvania is in danger, though--one angrily scribbled out horse, Viscardi, is determined to complete the ruination of Zora's art, and all the other scribbled out creatures she's drawn have fallen under his domination.

If Zora can find the mother she drew as a superhero, maybe she can save Pencilvania, and herself and Frankie, and make everything all right again.

And so their journey begins through a wildly magical world of art come to life, to the final realization that their mother can't, in fact, save them, and it's up to Zora.

Zora's grief is vividly real, and desperately sad.  But the story itself is not just about this sadness--Pencilvania is full of humor; many of its denizens are childhood scribbles (the blobby eeks for instance, and there's also many charming hamsters from the hamsters in pajamas series she drew.  A seven legged horse becomes her greatest helper, and he's a lovely character in his own right.  Sophia Moore's illustrations add to the charm.  The danger is very real, though, and Viscardi is a frightening villain....

It's encouraging to watch Zora grow in maturity during her adventures, and it's great that at the end she gets her creative spark back, and is willing to give her grandmother a chance.

In short, an engrossing read that offers an accessible look at  a difficult topic; best for younger middle grade readers.

(review copy received for Cybils Awards)