Laurie Slagenwhite Walters

Nory’s older brother is a Flare (manipulates fire); her older sister is a Fuzzy (controls animals); and their father, a Flicker (turns things invisible), is headmaster of the prestigious Sage Academy of Magic and Performance. Nory’s own magic is wonky, most closely approximating a “messed-up Fluxer” (shape-shifting): she can turn herself into a kitten easily enough, but a) she’s spotty about subsequently keeping control over the feline part of her brain; and b) she frequently turns into two animals at once—a beaver-kitten, for example. After a disastrous showing at her Sage Academy entrance exam, Dad sends her to live with eccentric Aunt Margo to attend a school that offers a special program for “the worst of the wonky,” as Nory puts it. And her classmates are doozies: one boy sees sound waves, another turns into a rock. Their teacher, Ms. Starr, takes a holistic approach, having the children do headstands and trust exercises and exploring the connections between their powers and their emotions. In this collaboration among three authors, there’s no telling who did what, in a good way: the writing is seamless. The book is light but not inconsequential, and its multicultural and differently-abled cast—Nory’s dad is black and her mom (who died “a long time ago”) was white; a new friend is Asian American; their school principal is Hispanic; a classmate wears a hearing aid