Once A Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

• ISBN: 978-0547223995
• Plot summary: Tamsin Greene grows up in a family of witches, only to find out she has no "talent", that is, the particular power each witch grows into by the age of eight. When the juxtaposition of her lack of talent against her utterly magical family becomes unbearable, Tamsin applies to a boarding school in New York City. It is only a few hours from her family's home upstate, but to them, her move is both unexpected but understood. Life carries on at a "normal" pace for sometime until Tamsin finds herself at her grandmother's bookstore offering to help a gentleman find a family heirloom. It isn't her "talent" to find things, but the thought of helping an NYU professor who might secure her a place at the university was too compelling to pass up. While looking to the object he desires, Tamsin finds out she has stepped into a much more serious situation and her friends and family are in danger at her expense. What Tamsin finds is much more than she ever bargained for.
• Critical evaluation: Once a Witch is a fabulous and fast paced novel that follows a young girl who doesn't fit in with her family and has been searching for where she fits in ever since her "talent" fails to appear. Even though Tamsin does make a life for herself outside of the family circle, she still finds herself wishing for their validation. When the professor appears in search of his family heirloom, Tamsin sees how she can both provide for the future of her education and perhaps once and for all show her family that she has some value. These themes of validation and feeling like an outsider are common among teens and through reading about Tamsin's follies, the reader gets to experience just how one might (clumsily) go about putting their life together. The characters in this story were likable and the story was quite excellent.
• Reader's annotation: Tamsin Greene finds herself in quite a bind when she offers to help a man with something he can't find on his own.
• About the author: Carolyn MacCullough is the author of four young adult novels and lives in Brooklyn.
• Genre: Fiction/supernatural
• Curriculum ties, if any: None
• Booktalking ideas:
• What "talent" do you wish you had?
• How would you feel if you were "normal" while the rest of the members of your family were "talented"?
• Reading level/interest age: 15+
• Challenge issues: None
• Why was this item included? As a graduate of the New School, I was eager to read something by my fellow alumna.