Lia Park and the Heavenly Heirlooms

Jenna Yoon's Lia Park and the Heavenly Heirlooms is a Korean magic-school adventure for 10 year olds that starts with Lia's first day and goes wrong almost straight away.

What happens

This is the second Lia Park book. Lia and Joon, best friends forever, have finally made it into the International Magic School, hidden at the foot of a mountain outside Seoul. She's been looking forward to this practically all her life.

Getting in is half the fun. The sign outside says International Mabuk School (a very ordinary-looking school, on purpose). Behind it is grass taller than Lia that giggles when her mum asks it nicely to make a path. Then a gate with red pillars appears out of thin air.

There's a hyperloop train between the houses. The uniforms clean themselves. Lia's house, the House of Benevolence, has a front door that's a dragon's open mouth. Who wouldn't want to walk in through that?

Then comes the welcome ceremony. Each new student has to light up their school badge using their own energy. Joon does it in about five seconds and everyone cheers. Lia's energy just stops. It takes her five whole minutes, with everyone watching and whispering.

She's sure the badge was faulty. Joon isn't so sure. "It could just be you, Lia." Ouch. That little crack between the two best friends is one of the most real things in the book. He's suddenly Mr Popular, and she's the girl everyone is talking about for the wrong reasons.

Her new roommate Rae doesn't help. Rae wears headphones with no music in them so people won't talk to her. She also knows every Korean ghost story going. Never sleep facing a mirror. Always push your chair in at night, or a ghost might sit and watch you!

Korean words, food and folklore are all through it, and they're part of the fun rather than a lesson. The Second Years put on a play about three heavenly heirlooms, a mirror, a rattle and a dagger, split up and hidden away. A nine-headed monster wants all three heirlooms destroyed. One of them has gone missing, and Lia's class is sent to find it. It's no spoiler that someone seems to be getting in their way.

For a child who loves a magic school with houses and dorms, and a heroine who's sure she's right even when nobody else believes her, this is a super choice.

What to read next

If they haven't met Lia yet, Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is where it all starts. She's twelve, desperate to get into the magic school, and her own magic still hasn't shown up.