When people ask me what my novel is about, I say “magic flowers.” They usually assume then that it’s fantasy or perhaps science fiction. I’ve seen it categorized as both, even though it’s not really either. I’d like to make a case for another category that I haven’t heard applied to many YA novels: magic realism.

If you haven’t heard the term, magic realism is pretty much the way it sounds: magic drawn out of a realistic world. In Forget-Her-Nots, I strove to make the setting of Avondale, the climate of Virginia, the flowers, and their bloom times reflect the real world. No, Avondale doesn’t actually exist anywhere other than in my head, but it could.

So writers of magic realism take entirely realistic scenes and inject elements of magic. In Forget-Her-Nots, the flowers have magical powers that can awaken emotions and change lives. To stay real, I based the flower powers on how people have imagined and interpreted flowers in the past. I drew from ancient Greek myths, Shakespeare’s plays, and the Victorian language of flowers to create the list of flower meanings you can find on my website (www.amybrecountwhite.com) or in the back of the novel. So there is an historical basis for my magic.

What I find fascinating about magic realism is that it challenges us to rethink our preconceived notions about the real world. Flowers do have a certain magic. If they didn’t, why would we include them at nearly every important celebration or rite of passage in our lives, especially for girls? Next time someone presents you with flowers, open yourself up to the possibility of magic. You never know.

One article* I read says that magic realism “rediscovers ‘the charm of the object’ [i.e. a flower] by looking in a fresh, childlike way … with such attentiveness and intensity that it … once again becomes a sources of awe and wonder.” In other words, if you look at something very carefully and with fresh eyes, it can be transformed. It no longer seems ordinary, but extraordinary. That’s what I’d love for all my readers to experience the next time they gaze at a bloom.

For the uber-geeks, like me and Mitali Dave, some superb writers of magic realism are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Toni Morrison. I highly recommend them all.

Thanks for reading and thanks to Sharon for hosting!

* http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/hamilton/iac/magic/magic_primer.pdf

As part of the tour, I get to pick out some flowers for you guys to collection. I picked Tall Sunflowers because they are pretty and tall. I admire sunflowers because they stick out among all the other smaller flowers. Sunflowers demand your attention. I can relate to this because I am also tall and also like attention.The meaning of Tall Sunflowers is haughtiness. One definition of haughty is; very proud. I wanted to share this flower with you all because I think that you should all stand tall and proud. Imitate Tall Sunflowers and channel you fierceness!