46 pages • 1 hour read
The Key to Extraordinary
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Background
Authorial Context: Natalie Lloyd and Magical Realism
A native of east Tennessee, Natalie Lloyd knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer and often sets her middle grade literature in her home state. In 2014, she published her first novel, A Snicker of Magic, which won multiple awards and is currently being developed into a television series. Lloyd followed up with The Key to Extraordinary in 2016 and several more middle grade narratives, including the series The Problim Children and Over the Moon. After garnering many awards, in 2020, Lloyd dabbled in the world of audiobooks and crafted Silverswift. Most recently, she published Hummingbird, a novel that draws on her own experiences with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease.
Lloyd also continues a legacy of writers within the genre of magical realism, a blend of supernatural elements and real life that often casts the ordinary world in an extraordinary light. The genre’s roots are in Latin American literature, with Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude being one of the most recognizable works. Also notable are Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic. Children’s literature is also rife with magical stories set in the ordinary world, like Edward Eager’s classic Half Magic. Continuing this tradition in The Key to Extraordinary, Lloyd injects magical elements like raining rose petals, glowing flowers, and ghosts into Emma’s quest to save her home from a greedy developer. However, it is not just the details that make Emma’s world extraordinary; it is also the characters’ genuine belief in magic, emphasized in her mom’s statement that “there are thin places in the world—where you get this feeling like, if you could reach out your hand, you’d touch a whisper-thin veil separating this world from another one” (96). This notion propels characters like Emma to embrace the wondrous elements of Blackbird Hollow.
Cultural Context: Tennessee, the Civil War, and Ghost Legends
Lloyd’s novel incorporates the Civil War history of Tennessee. The last state to join the Confederacy in 1861, it was coveted by both sides for its railroads and rivers. As a result, it had the second highest number of skirmishes during the war, with over 120,000 casualties on its soil. Blackbird Hollow, Emma’s fictional town, is situated in eastern Tennessee, not far from the Appalachian Trail and the Cumberland Gap, a famous mountain route and an area known for its resistance to the Confederacy. Caves and trails near the Cumberland Gap were part of the Underground Railroad. Because slavery was not prevalent in this part of the South, it became an ideal route for self-liberation. Many churches were used as safe havens for freedom seekers. Granny Blue’s Boneyard Cafe, which was once a church with tunnels leading to caves, is a fictionalized version of what might have been. Additionally, Lily Kate and Amelia Abernathy, Emma’s Wildflower ancestors, were conductors for the Underground Railroad.
The Cumberland Gap and eastern Tennessee are believed to be haunted by ghosts of the Civil War. In The Key to Extraordinary, Waverly Valentine ends up on Emma’s cemetery tour because she heard stories of Civil War ghosts, which pays homage to the actual legends that abound. Like many Tennessee natives today, Uncle Peri has experienced the supernatural. He tells of the Conductor, a ghost believed to be a Civil War soldier who buried treasure nearby. However, Emma later discovers that the Conductor was a conduit for the Underground Railroad. Also, Peri’s description of the Wailing Woods links to the legends of hauntings. A site of a bloody Civil War battle, “the woods [a]re filled with screams and cries” even after the fighting has subsided, and many “believe it’s the sound the widows ma[k]e, mourning their loved ones.” He goes on to explain that “sorrow seeps into the ground. Hovers over a place” (140). Peri’s words reveal the belief that the Wailing Woods are haunted and give credence to the notion that there is a thin veil between worlds. Not only does Lloyd’s use of magical realism inject Emma’s world with beauty and wonder, but it also brings to life the rich history of Tennessee.
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