A Snicker of Magic - Scholastic 2014 Author:Natalie LLoyd (from back cover of the book:) — Some people collect baseball cards. — Or hedgehogs. — Or belly-button lint. — Not Felicity Pickle. She collects words--words people are thinking about, or words they want. Some words glow, and some dance. Some have wings, and some have zebra stripes. — Yet although Felicity has been all over the country, there's on... more »e words she's never seen--home.
Felicity is tired of wandering from place to place. Making new friends can be harder than fractions . . . especially when words like 'loser' and 'clutzerdoodle' fill the classroom every time you open your mouth.
But when her mama's van, the Pickled Jalapeno, rolls into Midnight Gulch, Felicity feels her luck begin to change. For the first time, she's found a place where she can grow some good memories . . . and maybe even make a friend.
That's because Midnight Gulch used to be magical--a town where people could dance up thunderstorms and bake secrets into pies--until a curse drove the magic away.
At least, that's what most people think.
Felicity can tell there's still a snicker of magic in Midnight Gulch. It hasn't disappeared; it's just been playing hide-and-seek for a very long time.
All she has to do is find the right words to turn it loose.
Appeals to 4th-6th graders.
Reading Level Grade 5.
(from Scholastic website:)
Interest Level
Grades 3 - 7
Reading Level
Grade level Equivalent: 4.2
Lexile® Measure: 680L
DRA: Not Available
Guided Reading: Not Available
Genre
Fantasy
Theme/Subject
Single Parents
Magic and Supernatural
Moving
About This Book
Introducing an extraordinary debut that will make your skin tingle, your eyes glisten...and your heart sing.
Midnight Gulch used to be a magical place, a town where people could sing up thunderstorms and dance up sunflowers. But that was long ago, before a curse drove the magic away. Twelve-year-old Felicity knows all about things like that; her nomadic mother is cursed with a wandering heart.
But when she arrives in Midnight Gulch, Felicity thinks her luck's about to change. A "word collector," Felicity sees words everywhere — shining above strangers, tucked into church eves, and tangled up her dog's floppy ears — but Midnight Gulch is the first place she's ever seen the word "home." And then there's Jonah, a mysterious, spiky-haired do-gooder who shimmers with words Felicity's never seen before, words that make Felicity's heart beat a little faster.« less