What we sacrifice for magic A novel

Elisabeth Watry-Ridder has just graduated from high school, and she would like nothing better than to escape the confines of small-town Friedrich. It's 1968, and the world is rapidly changing. Unfortunately, Elisabeth's future was decided for her a long time ago. She is to marry her high-school boyfriend, stay in Friedrich, and take over as the head of her magical family. The Watry women have supplied the town of Friedrich with spells, charms, and energy healing for over a century. Because of the immense power Elisabeth showed at an early age, her formidable grandmother Magda trained her to harness the energy they call the ice floe. Elisabeth is torn between pride in her magical abilities and a desire to leave her familial responsibilities. Learning new information about her past drives her further away from Magda and leads to a Solstice where everything changes. DeWerd adds magic to a classic coming-of-age story, and the result is a magical historical-fiction debut. Readers, including older teens, will identify with Elisabeth's desire to forge a new path away from the expectations of her family.

In this homespun debut, set in 1960s Minnesota, DeWerd serves up a hefty portion of comfort food and witchcraft. Eighteen-year-old Elisabeth Watry-Ridder longs to escape from her dysfunctional family, the insular immigrant community she's grown up in, and the boy she dated through high school, but a spell cast by her grandmother Magda has locked half her heart in the family's mysterious cedar chest. Magda has been tutoring her protégé in the dark arts since childhood and demands Elisabeth continue the family tradition of witchcraft, insisting that neither Elisabeth's younger sister, Mary, nor her mother are gifted enough to do the job. Elisabeth starts to question this when she learns about a falling out between Magda and her mother that happened when Elisabeth was still a baby and witnesses Mary magically shield her paternal grandparents from a road mishap. Will Elisabeth be able to break away from her family--and if she does, will she be able to live without their magic? Though the plot slows to a snail's pace as Elisabeth dithers over what to do with her life and how to free herself from Magda's spell, there's enough summer sausage, seances, and '60s scene-setting to charm even the least nostalgic of readers. DeWerd should certainly win some fans. (Sept.)