By Joy McCullough
Dutton / Penguin Random House, 2025
287 pages
978-0-593-85587-4
Age 13 and older
On her 16th birthday, Carmela is finally allowed to begin training at La Tofana, the apothecary run by her mother and two other women in 17th-century Rome. Sometimes called a witch, Carmela’s mother, Giulia, and her staff, Maria and Laura, treat a host of run-of-the-mill ailments. They also secretly help women, including Laura’s childhood nemesis, Violetta, end unwanted pregnancies. And on rare occasions, Giulia will give an abused woman whose life is at risk a potent and, when her instructions are followed, undetectable poison to kill her husband. Alone in the shop one day, Carmela makes the decision to give the poison to a woman who is regularly beaten. The woman ignores the dosage instructions and is arrested for murder. She implicates the shop and Giulia, whose own mother was put to death for murdering her abusive spouse. Warned by a priest of her likely arrest, Giulia flees, leaving Carmela filled with guilt, grief, and worry. Carmela slowly picks up the pieces, buoyed by Maria and Laura, and, to her surprise, Violetta. The prose narrative of this compelling novel that draws loosely on historical figures is interspersed with free-verse poems that underscore how often women face abuse, both from those they know and strangers on the street; how their options may be limited by economics; and their limited power in many situations regardless of economic status. The story also offers balm—and healing—in the age-old practice of women helping women. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center