Zia Erases the World

March 7, 2022
Word enthusiast Zia Angelis, who has “medium-fair skin,” misses the days of giggling over invented portmanteaus with her two best friends, but the onset of sudden depressive episodes—which she calls Shadoom, for “the room of shadows inside me”—has isolated the sixth grader and strained her once-close relationship with her stressed single mother. Things are further disrupted when Zia’s Greek Yiayia moves in with the family, bringing with her an old family dictionary whose pages are embedded with an eraser shaped like a matáki, or evil eye, charm. Finding that using the eraser to remove words from the dictionary also disappears their real-life referents, Zia begins to erase terms. To help others, she nixes audition and wasp, then moves on to those that remind her of the Shadoom; soon, Zia even gains the self-confidence to befriend cool new girl Alice Phan, who is Vietnamese. But erasing words such as fear and pain cause staggering consequences: Zia’s mother quits her two much-needed jobs, and even the beloved family cat has a dangerous encounter. Featuring a witty first-person narrator and threading in myriad cultural and etymological details, Barton’s (the Heart of Thorns series) lightly magical middle grade debut emphasizes a potent message about “finding light between the shadows.” Ages 8–12. Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House.

March 15, 2022
Suffering from depression, a girl erases words from a magical dictionary, hoping in the process to also erase her sadness. Zia, a sixth grader with a gift for making up words, lived happily with her mother until Shadoom came into her life a year ago. Shadoom is Zia's name for the "room of shadows" now filling her with "fear and hurt and sadness." Afraid everyone will think she's a "hopeless weirdling," Zia stops hanging out with her best friends, hides in the girls' bathroom at lunch, and refuses to tell her mother, who's stressed enough working two jobs, paying bills, and caring for Zia's grouchy Greek immigrant grandmother who has dementia. Zia wants to fix herself, but she doesn't know what's wrong. Discovering her grandmother's mysterious dictionary that comes with a charmed eraser, Zia experiments with erasing words and feels empowered as they vanish from the world. While removing words that trigger Shadoom, Zia erases fear and then pain with dire consequences and must find a way to undo her actions. Narrating in the first-person present tense, Zia's honest voice adds immediacy and credibility to her chronicle of the frightening onset of her depression, her lonely efforts to conceal it, her totally misguided attempts to magically erase it, and the realization she doesn't have to cope on her own. Definitions of words key to Zia's story introduce each chapter, reinforcing the dictionary theme. A moving, hopeful tale about confronting depression. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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March 15, 2022
Grades 4-7 Zia is a wicked wordsmith. That's why it's baffling when she can't name the feeling that unexpectedly closes in around her at a friend's birthday party. This feeling--which Zia refers to as the Shadoom--has quickly taken over her life. When her cantankerous Greek yiayia moves in, the Shadoom seems determined to stay. But in Yiayia's belongings is a family heirloom: the C. Scuro Dictionary, 13th edition. It's no ordinary dictionary, however, and Zia discovers that words and definitions can be wiped clean with a magical blue eraser shaped like an evil eye, removing them from reality too. If Zia can't name her fears, can she erase them from existence entirely? Barton brings a pinch of her signature magic to her middle-grade debut exploring the often inexplicable emotions of depression. Zia's desperation to right the world for everyone around her is endearing, even as the consequences of her rash decisions quickly erupt around her. Determined and inquisitive Zia and her search for a ""cure"" to feel whole will resonate across the board--no matter what age.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2022
Sixth grader Zia Angelis is living with depression -- the Shadoom, to Zia, who is fond of inventing portmanteau words. She doesn't know how to explain what she's feeling to her supportive mother, to her one-time friends, or to Alice Phan, the cool new girl at school. When her "grumpy Greek grandmother" moves in, Zia discovers a dictionary in her yiayia's things that turns out to have magical powers: it's erasable, and whenever Zia removes a word from the dictionary, that concept disappears from the world. Getting rid of peach seems like no big deal, but when Zia tries to combat the Shadoom by erasing fear and pain, the results are far messier. Discovering that her yiayia has always known the dictionary's secret -- and that all generations of her family have faced their own problems with depression -- allows Zia to fix what the dictionary broke and deal with her mental health on her own terms. Barton fits a lot into the narrative -- depression, dementia, economic inequality, Greek and Vietnamese heritages, the small indignities of school -- without overwhelming the story. The characters are fully formed, and Zia's eventual solution to the problem of the dictionary is unexpected but just right. The frequent invented words range from charming to cloying, depending on the reader's sensibilities, but are unquestionably creative. Sarah Rettger

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2022
Sixth grader Zia Angelis is living with depression -- the Shadoom, to Zia, who is fond of inventing portmanteau words. She doesn't know how to explain what she's feeling to her supportive mother, to her one-time friends, or to Alice Phan, the cool new girl at school. When her "grumpy Greek grandmother" moves in, Zia discovers a dictionary in her yiayia's things that turns out to have magical powers: it's erasable, and whenever Zia removes a word from the dictionary, that concept disappears from the world. Getting rid of peach seems like no big deal, but when Zia tries to combat the Shadoom by erasing fear and pain, the results are far messier. Discovering that her yiayia has always known the dictionary's secret -- and that all generations of her family have faced their own problems with depression -- allows Zia to fix what the dictionary broke and deal with her mental health on her own terms. Barton fits a lot into the narrative -- depression, dementia, economic inequality, Greek and Vietnamese heritages, the small indignities of school -- without overwhelming the story. The characters are fully formed, and Zia's eventual solution to the problem of the dictionary is unexpected but just right. The frequent invented words range from charming to cloying, depending on the reader's sensibilities, but are unquestionably creative.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)