The Memory Thief (Thirteen Witches #1)

Gr 4-8--Growing up with an indifferent mother, Rosie quickly learns to take care of herself and find the love she seeks in her own stories, which she shares with her best friend. When she decides that she is too old for storytelling, she unknowingly opens up her inherited power of "sight." Rosie comes from a long line of witch hunters who have the ability to see deeper into the world around them. She learns of witches, ghosts, a moon goddess, and how dangerous her life may become. Coming face-to-face with one of the 13 original witches, Rosie has to learn her place and powers in this new world. Anderson weaves a beautiful tale of beauty and darkness. This larger world is described eloquently in its magical details and terrifying dangers. Readers will come to understand the importance of love, friendship and imagination, while being warned against those who feed off of these good parts of the world. This first book in a new series ends on an intriguing note for future titles. VERDICT For fans of Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart" and Kelly Barnhill's The Girl Who Drank the Moon, fantasy fans will have much to enjoy with this one.--Julie Jesernik, Warrenville P.L., IL

In this heavily allusive fantasy set in coastal Maine, narrator Rosie, an avid fantasy writer, lives alone with her neglectful mother, leaving herself parental notes ("You look taller today, sweetie"). When her best friend, assertive and athletic Germ, suggests that the new sixth graders abandon childish things, Rosie burns her stories, inadvertently unlocking a special sight that reveals the ghosts--some friendly, some menacing--coexisting in her home. Helping to locate an old volume, The Witch Hunter's Guide to the Universe, the ghosts disclose the existence of 13 witches who conjure the world's evil, Rosie's mother's past as the last known witch hunter, and the root of Rosie's mother's neglect in the covetous Memory Thief's curse. But the sight also places Rosie, and others, in danger of that witch and her emissaries. In this novel of ghosts, memory, and story, Anderson (Midnight at the Electric) weaves components of children's literature mainstays into a dreamlike first-person narrative. Though reveals are clearly telegraphed, an atmospherically rendered villain and a layered portrait of two friends intent on rescuing each other elevate this trilogy opener. Ages 9-13. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Mar.)