Bree Boyd is a Legend

by Leah Johnson

It's not everyday your life gets turned upside down by magical powers! Boyds are born to stand Bree's dad is celebrated professor, her mum is a state senator, her brother is on his way to professional basketball stardom and her sister is a prima ballerina. But where does Bree fit in? Sure, she just won the Regional Spelling Bee and is well on her way to Nationals, but lately something doesn't feel quite right.

With her new friends Ellie, Abby and Sam, Bree is realizing that there's more to life than being the best. Not to mention this tiny, pesky thing she keeps trying to forget about – her newfound powers!

But when an old friend comes back to town, things get out of control. So many feelings from Bree's past come bubbling to the surface, and Bree starts to lose control of her powers. Will Bree find her way back to who she used to be? Or will she finally embrace who she is? 

By award winning author, Leah Johnson, this is a funny and magical middle-grade novel following up from Ellie Engle Saves The World Perfect for fans of Miss Marvel, Smallsville and Amari and the Night Brothers. A story about friendship and finding yourself.

Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Audiobook, Friendship, Childrens, Family

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2025

About the author

Leah Johnson (she/her) is an eternal midwesterner and author of award-winning books for children and young adults. Her bestselling debut YA novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, was a Stonewall Honor Book, the inaugural Reese's Book Club YA pick, and in 2021, named by TIME as one of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed middle grade novel, Ellie Engle Saves Herself, and the editor of the USA Today bestselling anthology, Black Girl Power. When she’s not writing, you can find her at Loudmouth Books, her Indianapolis-based independent bookstore that specializes in highlighting the work of marginalized authors and uplifting banned or challenged books.

Reviews

[Sacha · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

If you are a fan of Ellie Engle, you are bound to also love Bree Boyd, who does, in fact, live up to her legendary status.

Bree is a relatable middle grader in many ways, and as the youngest child, her two older sisters are always supporting her, even when her single dad, an aspiring politician, comes down hard on all of them. Bree is best known in her community for her expert spelling skills. She's a regular bee winner and poised to go all the way with this particular hobby. Whether that's the best thing for her is another story altogether.

While the magical elements feel a little more like an addition than a necessary part of the plot here, they still bring a lot of fun to the read and middle grade audiences will definitely appreciate the added whimsy. Overall, though, readers will most likely be drawn to Bree's great character, strong friendships, and intriguing family bonds. She may have a dash of magic around her, but who doesn't need that to survive middle school?

I really enjoy this series by Johnson, and I hope that there are many more friends with planned features in future books. I will be here to read them all!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[TheNextGenLibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The follow up to her fantastic MG debut, Ellie Engle, we now get Bree’s story from @byleahjohnson
🐝
Bree Boyd has GOALS. Ones her father has set for her, but they’re also ones she wants to achieve like winning the school’s spelling bee competition. But when Bree has to move on to the next level of the competition, she finds herself easily distracted after a lightning strike gives her the ability to levitate items & people! Now Bree’s life that used to be routine and planned is spinning out of control!
🐝
This was such well-done middle grade sequel that I might have loved even more than the first and how often does that happen?! This novel was filled with quotes that I couldn’t stop underlining!
“Oh, Beyonce, please purify Bree with your legendariness!”
“Middle school is like a dumpster full of feral cats.”
So many funny and poignant moments in this one. Check it out March 4!

CW: anxiety, classism, abandonment

4.5 ⭐️

[Ekene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as good, possibly even better than book 1. I really loved this

[Trigger Warning Database]

Trigger & Content Warnings

Anxiety (protagonist)

[Arriel Vinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leah does it again! This novel is the perfect balance of tender and hilarious. Leah so perfectly balances what it means to live for others, and how to learn to live for yourself. If you're a parent, share this book with your kids and their friends. It's a gem.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the first few pages, I felt very sad for the main character, 13-year-old seventh-grader Bree (short for Brianna), who is hiding in a restroom trying to psyche herself up for a district spelling bee. Instead of giving herself a pep-talk, she threatens herself with menacing but non-specific language - "You'd better not mess this up, I'm warning you" (p.2) - and comes out girding for a vicious battle she is worried she might lose. She can't tell her friends that "it feels like my entire world might just break into pieces if I don't win." She has in the past felt she is great at spelling, but instead of trusting that, she doubts herself.

This internal agony is something way beyond what I have personally experienced in my own life, and may not be a common or universal experience - but reading it gives a visceral sense of the despair of super-high expectations.

What turns her mood before this contest is the unwavering, pestering, loving, silly, and consistent support of her friends, which overrides the background terror she feels at possibly disappointing her dad.

Her dad's stern disapproval is not-so-subtly framed as a response to racism; "You have to present your best self to the world every day. We don't get second chances at first impressions. You always have to be twice as good to get half as much." "Dad has said those same words to me thousands of times. I couldn't forget them even if I tried." (p.41)

Bree has already given up on her own interests to compete, even though she doesn't really care about spelling (p. 24), so she seems pitiful, passive, and stagnant. Because she is not open with her friends, her family, her tutor, or even herself, I did not feel connected to the character or the story.

However, the path to her salvation is laid out by page 50; besides receiving an electric shock that gives her unusual superpowers, she's also received a random assignment from her disillusioned spelling tutor Carrie to "Do something else. Anything else. And really commit to it. It'll be good for you." (p. 49)

At that point, the rest of the story is inevitable; obviously, she is going to finally defy her father, now that she has a contradictory assignment from another authority figure AND the chaos of an unmastered super skill.

Unfortunately, she barely gets a handle on her special powers, even until the end of the book - she spends less time trying to manage her powers than she does practicing dance moves with her friends, which she does very little.

So she still seems mostly passive, even when she finally (after multiple opportunities) sees alarmingly clearly that her father has completely prioritized his political career over supporting her. Finally, after a pep talk from her spelling tutor encouraging her to let go of winning the bee, she refuses to spell a word she knows - she forfeits the big spelling bee, gets another pep talk from her older sister, who then drives her across town to mend her friendships by joining their scheduled group performance, and after they also give her a pep talk, she uses her special powers on the group's behalf to impress their schoolmates.

Bree gives a sincere - even model - apology to her friends, explains why she didn't share her anxiety with them sooner, and with her friends and sisters standing nearby holding her hand, she gets the nerve to tell her father that he's wrong. Her older sisters jump in to speak up - filling in the details of his failure as a parent, and then dad gives a heartfelt model apology as well.

None of that was satisfying to me as a reader, but it is probably realistic to a portion of the population, some of whom might identify with the middle-school child forced by parents to be a super-achiever.

It might also be of interest to readers to imagine their supportive presence could change the course of their friends' lives.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Bree, who is best friends with Ellie, Abby, and Sammy, is a good speller, and works hard at this because her older sisters, Lex and Chris, are good at everything else. Her father, who used to be a college professor before he got into politics, is very proud of her abilities and expects her to win all of the spelling bees she enters. He has even enlisted the school counselor, Carrie, to tutor Bree. The father is very determined that all of his daughters will work twice as hard as everyone else, even though the saying goes that they might only get half as far because of the challenges Black people face. After the power goes out and Bree gets shocked trying to reseat the breaker, she develops telekinesis, which doesn't work to her advantage as much as you might think. She tells her friends about this, and they understand, especially since Ellie has the ability to reanimate the dead. Because Abby wants to perform in the talent show but every group needs at least four people, Bree agrees to perform, even though her father thinks it is a waste of her time. Her father's strict guidelines are further shattered when Chris comes home from law school with a tattooed finace who works as a floral designer. Bree participates in an exhibition spelling bee, and Carrie tries to get her to get "out of her head" by suggesting she answer as if she were different animals. It's fun, but spelling still is not what Bree really wants to do. When the final bee is on the same day as the talent show, will she have to do what her father wants, or will she be able to be there for her friends?
Strengths: It's good to see middle grade characters who have interests, and I can't think of many other books where the protagonist is interested in spelling competitions other than Blakemore's The Friendship Riddle or Seltzer's 2009 I Put a Spell on You. Bree's family is high acchieving, and the father is very invested in their success, even if he is less invested in taking care of them. Bonus points to Ms. Johnson for not killing off the mother, but having her just leave the family. It was also good to see Bree finally make up her own mind about what she wanted to do, preferring to hang out with her friends and have fun. I'm curious to see if Abby and Sammy get their own books.
Weaknesses: While this is definitely on trend as far as current mental health practices are concerned, it's hard for me to get my head around children not listening to their parents. No matter how unreasonable my parents were, I would never have contradicted them, and certainly family therapy wasn't something that would ever have been considered.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like magical powers set against a background of reality, similar to Baptiste's Moko Magic or Ireland's Emma and the Love Spell.

[Charessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Disney Hyperion and NetGalley for the eGalley to review!

I'm so glad we're in an era of coming of age stories like this where intergenerational trauma and marginalization is openly discussed. Breonna "Bree" Boyd is a young Black girl with way too much responsibility put on her shoulders for the mere fact that she is a Black girl. Her dad is obsessed with reputation and appearances, making it his daughters' problem as well as his own; constantly he tells them that they must do twice the work for half the rewards because they're Black, which means they cannot ever make a mistake and must never slack off (which, in some cases, "slacking off" is taking any sort of break to unwind and rest). He's also hardly ever home, leaving Bree and her sisters to take care of each other while he goes to everything that could possibly make him look good for his political campaign. On top of this, Bree is having to train for the regional spelling bee, deal with bullying at school and complications in her friend group, and try to understand her new powers that have suddenly cropped up. It's a *lot* and there were so many times I was angry on her behalf and wanted to hug her.

So many kids today are in that same position and this story is going to help them find their voice and their own power, so they can make their life their own instead of the "second chance" or an accessory of their parents, or the convenient tool for their "friends". To be fair, Bree herself misreads some situations and complicates things for herself, and this is part of her growth; however, if she had had the proper support she needs in the first place, she wouldn't be jumping to conclusions and belittling herself in an effort to shrink away from her problems. I think the lessons here are going to be good for readers in all the ways that matter. It also helps that Leah Johnson is hilarious and therefore so is Bree in her first person narration.

This book is for all the kids who are constantly being told that excellence is everything, fun is a waste of time, and losers have no place in their family. If you want children to know that they have agency over their own lives, add this one to your collection.

[Sifa Poulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.

BREE BOYD IS A LEGEND was a fun return to a world where kids get spontaneous powers but don't have to save the world. Like in ELLIE ENGLE SAVES HERSELF, no one is expecting Bree to fight a dark lord (there is no grand villain here!) but instead work out what's happening in her own life. In that respect, it's much more like a contemporary novel with a dash of magic.

We have a new narrator (though Ellie Engle is a major supporting cast) and a new power to explore (telekinesis! One of my favourites!) It's a tale about finding yourself when under pressure, particularly as you start to hit the point of school when talks about the future and performing well can start.

It's also about friendship and sisters. There's a small cast which lets the book really dig into those relationships. I really liked seeing the friendship group through new eyes but I particularly loved Bree's relationships with her sisters, Lex (who's around the most) and Christian. They're such a loving, supporting trio of sisters who are just doing their best for one another.

I really didn't like Bree's dad. He's just this horribly selfish man who's told himself what he's doing is for the best for everyone but it's not. This is ultimately a book about tweens having the courage to stand up to their family and say no to the pressure they might be under to perform - and it was satisfying when Bree reaches that stage - but until then, it was really difficult to read his scenes at time. I just wanted to reach through the page and shake him until he realised what he was doing, how selfish he was being, putting his career aspirations first (and the entire job of raising his family and keeping the house running fell on his children).

I don't know if we'll get another book in this world (it would be fun to see each of the four friends have a book!) This book was a (delightful) surprise, given ELLIE ENGLE SAVES HERSELF was originally a standalone. I hope we get more!

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

In BREE BOYD IS A LEGEND, Bree is on her way to being a legendary spelling champion. She is focused on winning, working hard to meet the high expectations held by her father and following in the footsteps of her supportive older sisters. After a lightning strike one fateful night, Bree’s world is turned upside down when she finds she has developed some magical powers. As her life becomes less predictable, Bree will need to figure out how to manage both her newfound powers and the intense pressure she’s feeling to achieve and make her family proud.

Bree is a relatable character, wanting to please but at the same time also wanting to find herself and spend time with her friends. Bree’s relationships with her older sisters stand out here. Each of the sisters has found a different way to manage their dad’s expectations, which adds depth to the characters. The magic adds a fun element to an engaging story about the challenges of the middle school years.

[Donna Metler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recieved a free eARC of this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it,

Bree is good at spelling. Bree has to live up to her father’s expectations and the example her older sisters have set. Bree sometimes feels way too much pressure and doesn’t have enough time with her friends….and, after a rather unexpected accident….Bree is now telekinetic. That’s a lot for one kid to manage. Like with Ellie Engle, Leah Johnson has given us a lovable, relatable protagonist. As someone who teaches gifted kids, I love that Bree’s struggles are typical of gifted kids…except that her “gifts” include a very atypical one. And it’s AWESOME to see a Black gifted kid!

This is an enjoyable book that I think will be a favorite of many kids.

[LeeAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me be obvious:

I adore Leah Johnson. She could write a grocery list, and I'd happily read that.

I adore Bree Boyd. In fact, Bree may be my favorite Leah Johnson character. She had me at page one. Definitions of obscure vocabulary words constantly on replay? I'm there. Especially: "The sounds the trees in the backyard make when the wind blows: psithurism."

Bree's middle school self-doubt and her efforts to make everyone happy are absolutely relatable, and will certainly resonate with the intended audience. Even this seasoned teacher feels Bree's burdens!

And as the story develops, it becomes clear that the friendships are what really makes this story special. (Ellie Engle is a must-read!) Of course, it's also magical realism for the win with me.

[Morgan Gayles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay because why was this book fun, heartfelt, and had young teenager black girl cackle moments. Bree is like your everyday young brown girl trying to make everyone proud and do her best but is suffering with a bit of anxiousness. The pressure of her dad has not an inch of how much her older sisters love and protect her.

The moment she’s struck by lightning while trying to fix the breaker? That feels like a powerful turning point whether it’s symbolic of a major change in her life or even the start of something supernatural, just know black girls have always been magic. 💁🏾‍♀️

I loved the themes of legacy, self-discovery, and stepping into your own greatness. Definitely recommend for a young reader or even if you love a good coming-of-age story.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect Johnson to continue int eh world that she created with Ellie Engle but I'm glad that she did. In this story, Bree gets her own unexpected powers which help her process the conflict of performing at her absolute best for her political candidate father and her desire to return to her passion of reading and writing fantasy stories. I love how Johnson explored these complexities at an age appropriate level while still giving all the characters - especially the friend group - their own distinct personalities. With two more members of this group, I hope that Johnson continues this companion series of coming of age middle grade novels.

[The Page Ladies Book Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bree Boyd lives for rules, routines, and spelling bee glory. She likes her life predictable and her dad kind of demands it. But when she’s struck by lightning, yes, actual lightning, Bree ends up with telekinesis. Suddenly, her tidy world is a full-on mess!

Now she’s dealing with flying objects, shifting family dynamics, and the terrifying idea that maybe being perfect isn’t the goal after all. Leah Johnson brings her signature heart and humor to this middle grade gem about embracing the unexpected and learning that a little chaos might just be magical.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I know that these books are meant for middle grades, part of me sees them as gentle reminders to parents to listen to their kids. I loved that Bree was the next in this friend group to gain superpowers and enjoyed watching how she used them. Her struggle with finding herself instead was very well written. I think I laughed out loud more often in this book than the last. Some of the situations were just fun and ridiculous.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun and entertaining with a side of seriousness, this book in Johnson's middle grade fantasy series features wordie Bree Boyd who ends up with a superpower but it also reminds her about expectations, life, and what she's willing to do. She's been a master spelling bee-er and follows the rules and organization set by her father and that gets thrown out the window.

I hate to use the word adorable, but it truly is and I loved every minute of it!

[Rachel Knuttel Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this world and love Leah Johnson for middle grade! Bree’s story has a great message about overcoming perfectionism and asking for help when you need it. I particularly loved the character of her spelling tutor as a mentor, as well as the relationship she had with her 2 sisters. This was a fun continuation after Ellie and I can’t wait to see a possible third book!

[Suzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this look at Bree and her love of words. I liked seeing the characters from the other book again.
Bree has to learn to control these powers she is given.
She is a strong character, who has to learn a lot along the way.

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for an advanced copy of Bree Boyd is a Legend by Leah Johnson to review! Leah Johnson is definitely a favorite of mine, and I love that she's ventured into the middle grade market. Ellie Engle Saves Herself was a favorite of mine last year, so jumping back into that world was fun!

Let's start with the characters. You'll see a lot of familiar faces if you've read the first book, but we also get to meet some new people! Bree is a fantastic narrator, especially as she learns to let go a little. Her dad puts so much pressure on her, and part of her arc is learning how to do things that are fun. Things that are just for her. There are a lot of middle grade readers who will likely relate to her story.

One of the things I loved most was Bree's relationships with her sisters. They all work together to figure out how to communicate to their dad, and they all definitely get to a better place by the end. It feels realistic and relatable, and shows middle school readers that they can have difficult conversations with the adults in their lives.

This is a great read for anyone who loves realistic stories with a touch of magic. If you've been sleeping on Leah Johnson, this is the year to pick up her books!
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Review to come!

[Thomas Henebury · Rating 5 out of 5]

my only question is if teens actually pray to Beyonce but dang this was a good read.

[Victoria Sikora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNF the book right away!

[Graysmom16 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s was cool but I liked the Ellie Engle one better!❤️❤️

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great read one one con I really didn’t like the way the dad treated the girls for the majority of the book it got me annoyed at times but overall the book was really good