Happy Book Publication Month to Dalya and the Magic Ink Bottle by J.M.Evenson (@jmevenson)

Dalya is a 12-year old girl. Her father takes her to Istanbul for Summer vacation to visit her great aunt. The Aunt’s house looks like a house from the horror movies, in ruin and almost falling apart. Dalya has her suspicions regarding the house but her father brushes them away.

While Dalya waits to spend her time with her busy father she comes across a magical cat. Dalya’s Aunt herself is full of secrets and tells Dalya that she has to set things right. The cat leads Dalya to a magic ink bottle and Dalya makes a wish to go home, Cleveland. Dalya transforms to a cat. As a cat, Dalya is on a quest to find the owner of ink bottle so that he can change her back to human. Dalya makes new friends along the journey who help her with her mission.

I loved that the setting of the book was in Instanbul and Dalya’s family are Muslims. I also liked the various animal characters and animal hang-outs in the book. There is a ‘human’ Instabul and an ‘animal’ Istanbul. In a few places, the scenes seemed incredulous for me, but might be enjoyable for kids.

This book would be of interest to middle graders who like reading diverse literature filled with magic and animal characters.

Thank you to @netgalley and @capstonepub for the ARC. I also purchased a hardcover of this book on Amazon for my library.