Magic, magic and some more magic, that’s what the novel A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd, is made up of. But the magic here is of the good kind, the kind that brings joy, fulfilment and gets people closer. And even the curse which has enveloped the people of a small town is not creepy or scary in the typical sense.

Twelve-year-old Felicity has the magical ability to see words, sparkling and floating in the air and hovering over people. She’s is a word collector who has collected most of the words you can imagine, in her special notebook.

But when Felicity arrives in Midnight Gulch, a town where her mother grew up, she sees the words ‘home’ and ‘friend’ for the first time.

She’s never stayed anywhere long enough to call it home because her mother is cursed with a wondering heart, and she and her sister are constantly being dragged to new places. Felicity becomes attached to the town and its people, who could once sing up storms but a curse took their magic away. Felicity sets about to find a way to take the curse of the mysterious Brothers Threadbare away from the town’s people, and thus also her mum, and make this magical place her real home.

Her new friend Jonah helps her out in this and there are other interesting characters, including Felicity’s mother, who make this beautiful tale delightful to read.

The story explores the warmth, sweetness and magic in family love and friendship, and uses the power of words to evoke emotions in the readers.

It is, but natural, to pay more attention to words and their meaning after reading this book and hopefully it will inspire at least some readers to become word collectors themselves.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 21st, 2018