Lois Duncan

A young girl gifted with remarkable powers of extrasensory perception struggles to come to terms with her unusual ability.

A Gift of Magic

Sarah Sammis

I can't remember why I put A Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan on my wishlist but I did. I've started to try to read through that list by locating the books at my local libraries.

A Gift of Magic differs from Duncan's typical young adult thrillers. This one has magical realism instead of a mystery. A mother recently divorced moves her three children into the home she's inherited from her mother. Along with the home the children begin to develop heightened skills: one gets music, one gets dance and the third gets ESP.

Mostly this book is about the children coming to terms with their new lives. They had been used to traveling all over the world and now they are grounded in a small town, in a home they have no emotional attachment to. For the most part the book is slow and different from other Duncan books I've read.

But there's an underlying twist that's foreshadowed throughout. A few details struck me as odd and I have to admit that I kept reading to see if those details would work themselves out. They do in the epilogue. For that tight ending I'm giving the book a perfect rating. If I did partial ratings, I would drop it down by half a star for the some awkward pacing earlier on in the novel.

A Gift of Magic

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