The Mark

Nadol, Jen. The Mark
Bloomsbury see St. Martins 2010 228p 16.99
978-1-59990-431-3 hs Supernatural VG-BN

Cassie sees a glow around people who will die within 24 hours. Riveting reading with fully developed characters amid a discussion of end of life. Is Cassie a descendent of one of the three Fates of myth? How does she handle this gift/curse? Grades 8 and up.
After several instances where Cassie has seen a glow around a person and they have died within 24 hours, she realizes she has the ability to foresee imminent death. Cassie has lived with her grandmother since the death of her parents over 10 years previous. After grandma’s death, yes Cassie saw the mark and shared the knowledge with grandma, who calmly said it was her time to go, Cassie is forced to live with an aunt she has never met for three months as set out in grandma’s will. Cassie’s aunt is non-attentive leaving Cassie on her own. Cassie gets a summer job, audits a college philosophy course and falls in love with a college student. Sexual relations are implied but not described. Cassie shares her curse/gift with the boyfriend and they disagree on whether she should try to change fate. Cassie delves into her parental background and finds her mother may have had the same gift. Is Cassie a descendent of Laechis, one of the three Fates/Moirae of Greek myth? Is this psychic ability a gift or a curse? Should she act on the knowledge? Readers come to know Cassie, her doubts, her strength, and her inquisitiveness through her interactions with others as well as the philosophical discussions in the college classroom. Guaranteed to hold reader’s attention and leave them much to think about. Outstanding first novel! Grades 8+. Outstanding first novel about the ability to foresee death. Readers will know Cassie, her doubts, her strength, and her intellectual curiosity and share her quandary whether to change fate since that may be within her power. Much to think about. Grades 8+. McNicol,Lois
Psychic ability - fiction

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney.

Harper, Suzanne. The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney.
Greenwillow(Harper Collins), 2007. $17.89 364p 978-0-06-113159-2
In Lily Dale, New York, a community dedicated to the religion of Spiritualism, tenth-grader Sparrow Delaney, the youngest daughter in an eccentric family of psychics, agonizes over whether to reveal her special abilities to help a friend.
What do you do when you see spirits and you are the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter in a family of psychics and you live in a community of spiritualists? If you are 10th grader Sparrow, you deny your gift and go to a high school as far away from your home as possible. Sparrow’s eccentric family is puzzled by Sparrow’s apparent lack of spiritual gifts, and they continue to hope that she will show some sign of being as gifted as they are. Sparrow has done an admirable job hiding her gifts and her spirit guides, but unfortunately, she can’t hide those gifts from the ghost of Luke, a teenage boy whom she encounters in her new school. The persistent ghost just happens to be the brother of Jack, a boy who catches Sparrow’s interest, and he adamantly maintains that Luke is not dead. Luke needs Sparrow’s psychic gifts to help Jack come to terms with his disappearance and his death. Sparrow needs to claim her gift to accomplish it. She also comes to terms with her abilities when she realizes that it is a gift that can bring healing to others. Sparrow is an entertaining character, as are the spirit guides. The dialog is natural, and the plot moves at a good pace. Luke and Jack’s story have an ending similar to the movie Ghost, which gave the originality of the Sparrow’s world, is probably the only way to bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining well-written read, with both emotion and wit.
Recommended for collections looking for a lighthearted approach to the supernatural. RZ