There You Have It: My Opinion
By Cambria Hebert
Title: Any Witch Way
Author: Annastaysia Savage
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: JournalStone 2011
Format: E-book and paperback
ISBN: 978-1-936564-05-7
Sadie’s life is tossed upside down when the police and the school principle call her out of class on day and tell her that her mother has died in a car accident. With no family, Sadie is left to live in foster care. Foster care isn’t the ideal place to begin with and when Sadie starts telling people that she thinks her mother is still alive, it becomes a place that is even harder to bear. Bounced from home to home and ostracized at school, Sadie only tries to get through the day. Her only escape is a small bookstore in town with a friendly old lady and a cat as her only friends.
As Sadie’s thirteenth birthday approaches things start to change around her. At first she doesn’t notice the way a tree’s leaves wilt when she’s sad or the way the lights overhead burn out when she’s upset. But then things begin to happen that she can’t help but notice…
On the day of her birthday (which is also Halloween) the glamour between the human world and the magikal one fades away, and Sadie finds that she has been sharing her little Pennsylvania town with the likes of which she never imagined.
To top it off…they all know her…
And some of them want her dead.
Thankfully, there are some Magikal Beings that are on her side and willing to help save her life.
The trouble is trying to figure out who exactly is on her side.
Any Witch Way is filled to the brim with enchanting characters and lots of twists and turns. There is also a bit of mystery thrown in because the reader is always wondering who is betraying whom. I really liked the main character, Sadie. I thought she was a believable thirteen-year-old girl. I liked the way she handled all the major stuff thrown her way but still didn’t seem too old for her skin. She still acted like a young girl.
This book was very entertaining, and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a light, fun read. I will say that I think this book would most especially appeal to the younger side of the young adult audience. As I was reading I kept thinking about the Disney Channel and how this book would be perfect for one of their TV movies. I could just see the way the Magikal Beings would come to life on screen. I really thought that this book held a good lesson for teenagers as well. To me, the lesson was all about self-acceptance and believing in yourself. Whenever you can accept yourself, life just seems to fall into place around you. I think that for young adults this can be the hardest lesson in life there is, and this book reinforces that it is possible to really ‘grow into yourself’.
The fantasy aspect of the book was probably my favorite thing about it. The characters were just so diverse, but yet they all fit into the same world with ease. I especially liked the Ogres and the Centaurs. Adding a bit of comedy to the book were Elgarbam and Whistle. Wherever they went these two little guys were hitting each over the head and threatening the other with bodily harm. There was just about everything you could imagine in this story, and it all seemed that much more enchanting because the reader was experiencing it with a thirteen-year-old girl.
The plot of this story was well thought out, and I liked the way it moved right along with the action. When you are done reading you are left with no question unanswered which, I feel, is important.
I do hope that Ms. Savage plans to write a sequel because I am certain that Sadie’s adventures in becoming a witch are only just getting started.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go call the Disney Channel…..