BRAS & BROOMSTICKS
Sarah Mlynowski
Delacorte Press
Fiction
ISBN: 0385731817
320 pages

• Read an Excerpt

Rachel's wishes never come true --- until the day she's at her locker and notices she's wearing the green suede sneakers she's been lusting after. But how did they get there? She persuades herself into believing her mother bought them as a surprise and, uh, Rachel was so sleepy that morning she put them on without noticing. Yeah --- that must be it.

But when she calls to thank her mother, Mom insists Rachel head directly home, where she gets some totally bizarre news. Rachel's little sister, Miri, is a witch. She can actually make dead animals come back to life (as a vegetarian she definitely livens up a lobster feast!).

Rachel's mom informs her that witchcraft runs in the family and that she is a witch herself, which causes Rachel to believe that her mom is delusional. But then Mom levitates Rachel's new shoes, and suddenly Rachel is a believer.

It turns out that Miri conjured up Rachel's new green sneakers as a condolence present to soften the blow of her being the only female non-witch in the family. Rachel is jealous, but she is also thrilled. Her mind races at the thought of all that Miri's witchcraft can deliver to her --- a perfect life! Their mom, though, insists, "Every spell has a consequence." Mom makes Miri promise not to cast any spells until she finishes her training, which will take an entire year.

However, Rachel is excellent at manipulating her sister. Can't she persuade Miri to use magic to stop their dad's imminent marriage to their "Soon To Be Step-Monster"? And surely she can talk Miri into making Rachel part of the popular group. As time goes by, though, Rachel has to consider some heavy topics: How much is it worth to be popular, anyway? Is it worth destroying friendships?

BRAS & BROOMSTICKS is a fast, funny, and original read. At times, though, I found Rachel to be outrageously selfish --- so focused on what she wants that she happily lays waste to everyone around her. Although Rachel's self-centered ways made me cringe occasionally, her hilarious and fresh wit gave me hope for her story's outcome and also made the book extremely hard to put down.

   --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

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