The Jumbies

The Jumbies (2015) is the first novel in Trinidadian American author Tracey Baptiste’s middle-grade fantasy Jumbies series. The story follows 11-year-old Corinne La Mer, who accidentally awakens a jumbie—a malevolent spirit—deep in the forest. She and her friends must then learn to use folk magic to subdue the jumbie and save their island.

The Jumbies (2015) and Rise of the Jumbies (2017) are both Junior Library Guild Selections; these novels received various accolades, including starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Novels from Baptiste’s Jumbies series have also been named to Bank Street’s Best Books, Kirkus Best MG of the year, Publishers Weekly Best MG of the year, and NPR’s year-end roundup.

This study guide references the 2016 paperback edition of The Jumbies, published by Algonquin Young Readers.

Content Warning: The guide discusses slavery, a subject that appears in the original text.

Plot Summary

The Jumbies opens as the protagonist, 11-year-old Corinne La Mer, runs through the mahogany forest in pursuit of an agouti (a wild relative of the guinea pig) that has her mother’s necklace tied to its leg. Corinne gets her necklace but rushes home when she senses glowing, yellow eyes watching her through the brush.

Corinne and her father, Pierre, go to the village’s graveyard for All Hallow’s Eve to pay their respects to Corinne’s deceased mother, Nicole La Mer. As Corinne and her father leave the graveyard, a shadowy woman briefly speaks to Pierre. When they walk away, Corinne notices the woman has disappeared.

The next day, Corinne goes to sell her oranges at the marketplace. There, a mysterious woman in green appears and approaches the white witch, an old woman who sells potions. The woman is a jumbie in disguise; the one who followed Corinne in the forest. She tells the white witch to help her maintain her human disguise long enough for her to live among humans, but the witch refuses: She does not want to upset the natural balance by using magic to help the jumbie.

Corinne and a new friend, Dru, whom she met at the market, rescue a frog from the bottom of a dry well near the edge of the mahogany forest. They befriend the boys, Bouki and Malik, who put it there. Bouki and Malik lead the girls to a beautiful, remote river, where the group of friends enjoys a swim.

Unbeknownst to the kids, the jumbie from the marketplace watches them from the bushes; after spotting the white witch on a distant shore, the jumbie slips beneath the water to drown the children. The white witch sees this and turns invisible, fighting the jumbie underwater and allowing the children to escape. After the children leave, the jumbie tells the witch she must help her maintain her human disguise since she just used her magic to save the children.

The jumbie in disguise is named Severine. After a while, she befriends Pierre and appears regularly at Corinne’s home. Once, during a heated confrontation, Severine tells Corinne her mother was a jumbie. Severine wants Corinne, who is part jumbie, to join her army in a war against the humans. When Corinne refuses, Severine banishes Corinne from her house with poison vines and steals her necklace. Incapable of handling its power, Severine hides the necklace atop a cliff. That night, an army of jumbies, enchanted by Severine, brutally attacks the island’s villagers.

The children seek the white witch’s help, but she tells them she cannot help against Severine, who is too ancient and powerful. Corinne must use her own magic powers, inherited from her mother. Corinne does not fully understand the witch’s advice, but she and her friends resolve to recover her mother’s necklace. They make an intricate plan that sees each of them confront deadly jumbies and face dangerous natural obstacles like forest fires, choppy waves, and the jagged rocks of a cliff face.

Corinne retrieves her necklace and Severine confronts her at the edge of the cliff. Corinne uses her magic to grow a gigantic orange tree, which drops juicy oranges to the ground. Severine tries one and greedily climbs into the tree for more. It quickly becomes too heavy for the cliff to hold, and Severine falls into the waves below.

The jumbies, now friendly, help Corinne and Pierre find their way back to the village, where they regroup with Dru, Bouki, Malik, and the white witch. Corinne assures everyone that Severine is gone, and with the help of the white witch, she grows a wall of enormous orange trees to keep people out of the forest.