THE WITCH OF BLOOR STREET

“I’m honestly not sure how I ended up outside with a ladder, a cat, and a bag of road salt.” Bookish sixth-grader Magnolia, called Maggie, straddles that spot between childhood and being a teenager. She believes in witches, gargoyles and dragons, and, over and over, her imagination causes her friends to ask, “How do you come up with these ideas? The well-meaning girl explores her Bloor Street (Toronto) neighborhood with best friend Sasha while avoiding her nemesis, Jarrett Johnson. After bravely entering a “haunted house” (really a tattoo parlor), Maggie is convinced that its proprietor is a witch who has cast a spell on her. Her bad luck rains down in buckets, and Maggie tries all sorts of crazy curse-reversing cures before doing what she should have done in the first place. Maggie’s understanding teacher, Mrs. Fedorchuk, whose e-mails begin each chapter, gently nudges Maggie to find what she is best at. The rich cast of secondary characters, including Maggie’s parents and small circle of understanding friends, help flesh out this satisfying story, which is told in Maggie's humorous, self-deprecating voice. Because Maggie is a particularly innocent sixth grader, readers as young as third grade can enjoy this window into the middle-school world and will hope to have friends like Magnolia and Sasha. (Fiction. 9-12)