Cloudy With a Chance of Books

While her twin brother is born the 7th son of a 7th son which makes him magically powerful and lucky, Eff is born thirteenth which means she is certain to poison the lives of those around her.  Eff’s is made miserable by her cousins and Uncle Earn who believe that her parents should not have kept an unlucky thirteenth child.  Her parents decide to move the family west to the frontier in part to get Eff away from the taunts of those who know she is a 13th child and in part because the father of the family has the opportunity to become a professor of magic at a new land grant college.  The frontier borders the wild west which in Wrede’s alternate world is populated with dangerous magical creatures.  Settlers into the West take along magicians trained to protect them from magical wildlife and sometimes settlements fall to attack by steam dragons or mammoths.  The plot chronicles Eff’s school days, the dramas of her siblings especially two older sisters’ marriages, the difficulties of being sister to a magically gifted twin, and Eff’s worries that her unlucky magic will harm those around her.

Eff grows from childhood to young adulthood during the course of this book.  The scope of her growth and the setting reminded me of older books like Anne of Green Gables (who is also just sure she’ll never be able to be good) and the collected Little House books.  Eff’s family is loving and supportive, but ultimately she must figure out her own troubles controlling her magical abilities.  I very much enjoyed this alternate pioneer version of the American West and Wrede’s heroine.  The details of Eff’s family life (she has a lot of family as a thirteenth child including many older siblings with dramas of their own) and the richly imagined magical world made this a delight to read.  While “Aphrikan” magic is respected and there are black characters in the book, Native Americans are conspicuously absent in this alternate vision of a magical American frontier.  This is a quieter fantasy than some swashbuckling dragon stories, but just as rich in its vision.  344p., 2009