White Magic: Spells to Hold You Book

Need to attract a boy? Cure a fear? Let go of the past?

Yvonne has the spell for you.

After Chrissie's dad dies, her mom moves them to California to remarry. Chrissie's lonely new life is transformed when the amazing Yvonne jumps out of her apartment door and pulls Chrissie inside to join Yvonne and Karen in their coven of "good witches." Yvonne is part gypsy, and somehow wiser than other kids her age. Karen is sweet, shy, and madly in love with the wrong boy. Alone, each girl is an outsider; but when the friends share their powers and cast spells to help each other, a kind of magic starts to happen.

Kelly Easton is the author of the young adult novels: The Life History of a Star, Walking on Air, Aftershock, and Hiroshima Dreams. The Life History of a Star was selected as the Golden Kite Honor Award, and as a Booksense 76 Top Ten Book for Teens. She lives and teaches in Rhode Island and Martha's Vineyard with her husband and their children.

Publishers Weekly

Easton (Aftershock) starts off strong but juggles one too many plot lines in this overly ambitious novel narrated by four different characters. Fifteen-year-old Chrissie has moved from rural Vermont to Los Angeles, where her mother has landed a job-complete with fancy condo and wealthy employer turned fiancé-but Chrissie still pines for her late dad and her best friend back "home." Enter two witches, Yvonne and Karen, who welcome Chrissie into their coven. They have problems of their own: Yvonne's father kidnapped her away from her incompetent Gypsy mother in Europe years earlier; and Karen, pretty but none too bright, doesn't seem to realize when guys are using her. Now Karen thinks she's in love with Jimmy, the fourth narrator, but he'd rather hook up with Yvonne, who's not interested; on the other hand, Jimmy drinks so heavily that he doesn't care all that much anyway. The author doesn't draw enough connections among the spells cast by the girls, their behavior and a rapid succession of shocking events: Karen's quasi-suicide attempt, Jimmy's arrest on a felony charge and the sudden appearance of Yvonne's mother. While there are good ideas here, as well as the keen observations that Easton's admirers can expect, the characters are not developed enough to support the dramas they are made to play out. Ages 12-16. (Aug.)