Sixth-grader Felicity Juniper Pickle knows her first name means "wondrous joy," but these days she just feels tuckered out--tired of jumping ship, lonely for a friend and hungry for a real home. "Storms and sevens" always trigger her superstitious mother's sudden departures, so Felicity and her little sister, Frannie Jo, have already lived in six different states. As the weary trio drives their dilapidated old van into their mother's hometown of Midnight Gulch, Tenn., Felicity has a glimmer of hope that this might be their last stop.
Rumor has it that Midnight Gulch was a magical mountain town, but most agree the magic vanished decades ago with the feuding magicians known as the Brothers Threadbare. All this mystery and history sets Felicity ablaze with curiosity and she dives into the town's secrets with the help of the "weirdly wonderful" green-eyed Jonah Pickett, a boy in a wheelchair who may be her first friend ever. Does she, the frequently tongue-tied "Queen of Dorkville," have some of that town magic in her veins... even if only a leftover "snicker"? Is her family--is she--somehow the cursed party in a long-dead witch's cryptic riddle? Sometimes Felicity finds answers in the sky. A "word collector" and "poem catcher," she sees words everywhere; sometimes she even hears them buzz or hum. The stars spell out "wonder," and the word "believe" drips down the window like "melted sunshine." Felicity starts to realize that magic does still live in the citizens of Midnight Gulch--her mother's "know-how" is painting, her uncle Boone's is seeing musical notes as colors, her friend Jonah's is knowing how to fix people. Dr. Zook's Famous Ice Cream Factory adds a Willy Wonka touch to the enchanted town: the factory is owned by a friendly, mansion-dwelling millionaire and produces 45 marvelous flavors, including "Blackberry Sunrise" that dredges up memories, both sweet and sour.
Felicity's passion and knack for words shapes the book. As flurries of words appear to her, she scribbles them in her blue notebook or on her shoe, and they are scattered throughout the story to "shimmer-shining" effect. This buoyant, soul-satisfying debut novel is a synesthetic, "fine as frog hair" story of love, hope and magic told in poetry, banjo chords, curling smoke and pounding hearts. --Karin Snelson
Shelf Talker: In this spellbinding debut novel set in Tennessee, Felicity Juniper Pickle sees magic in the people around her, and her world view is curiously contagious.