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Abracadabra #1
Thirteen Means Magic
Dawn Powell and Jennifer Nicholson are cousins and best friends. They share everything, especially the discovery Dawn makes on her thirteenth birthday. Dawn finds out then that she has magical powers and that she can make amazing things happen. Only Jennifer knows her secret, and together they make their eighth grade year the best ever!
On the first day of school, Dawn can't wait to cast her first big spell. She's always wanted to be popular, and now she has her chance. Before she knows it, almost everyone in eighth grade is saving a seat for her at lunchtime, inviting her to parties, and calling her at home. Now Dawn doesn't have a minute to herself, and she's beginning to realize that being popular isn't exactly what she wanted. But can she reverse this popularity spell before it turns into a disaster?
On the first day of school, Dawn can't wait to cast her first big spell. She's always wanted to be popular, and now she has her chance. Before she knows it, almost everyone in eighth grade is saving a seat for her at lunchtime, inviting her to parties, and calling her at home. Now Dawn doesn't have a minute to herself, and she's beginning to realize that being popular isn't exactly what she wanted. But can she reverse this popularity spell before it turns into a disaster?
- GenresMagic
135 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1989
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March 21, 2022
A cute book where our girl Dawn finds out she's able to use magic on her thirteenth birthday. Chaos ensues as she wishes (with a slight raise of an eyebrow) for popularity and help on her math homework (Einstein visits her!) I'm definitely reading more in the series, super sweet.
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April 27, 2026Thirteen Means Magic
Dawn Powell wakes up to a stormy day. This would be ok normally but it’s her 13th birthday and she’d planned a picnic. Her eyebrow arches and she feels emotional. Just like that the sun comes out. Her cousin Jennifer tells her to blow out her candle and make a wish. She thinks about wishing for looks but instead wishing for her birthday to be the start of something new and wonderful. She blows out the candles but they flicker back to life. They’re trick candles. Dawn worries that now her wish won’t come true, but her mother assures her it’s the love and good wishes of the people around her that make birthday wishes come true.
Dawn gets a brontosaurus that grows twenty times it’s size in water; a pair of sunglasses that make rainbows around everything you look at and a pair of socks with stars and moons from Jennifer. From Megan a colorful, cotton sweater and from her sister April a charm bracelet. The best charms are a silver guitar and an open book. Her brother Paul gets her a glow in the dark Frisbee. Her parents gave her a 10-speed bike (sky blue) with a pink ribbon around it. Dawn lays back on the grass and thinks of how weird it was that the weather cleared up.
Jennifer goes to show off a dive. When she jumps the tree cracks and Dawn wishes that the branch won’t break because if it does she’ll hit her head on the rocks She raises her eyebrow. The branch remains steady and Jennifer rights herself. Dawn’s mother suggests they all join Paul for a game of Frisbee but Dawn’s extremely shaken. She thinks maybe it’s just an overactive imagination and joins her brother and the others.
Dawn can’t keep her mind on the game and the Frisbee sails into the woods. When she raises her eyebrow in irritation is appears and flies toward her. She raises her eyebrow again and it flies in the opposite direction. She thinks stop and it does and freezes in midair. There’s no mistaking it. Dawn knows she has magic. Jennifer comes after Dawn wondering why she’s taking so long. Dawn doesn’t know how to tell her. So, Jennifer assumes its starting 8th grade stuff.
Dawn decides to keep her magic a secret. She’ll tell Jennifer eventually when she figures out what her magic can do. With a raise of her eyebrows, Dawn straightens her room and cleans her sisters dresser and mirror. Dawn starts to get a little anxious about telling Jennifer thinking maybe she’ll resent her or think she’s from another Planant. But no. This is Jennifer. She’ll be happy for her. So, she magic’s the phone to her to call her. It starts to ring but it’s Grandma Cassie asking about her birthday.
Grandma Cassie goes on to reveal she created a snow storm on her birthday. She says magic runs in the family. Dawn’s mother doesn’t have it tho. It skipped her. Paul does the thing with his eyebrows too but he won’t get powers until he’s thirteen. She says she has to be responsible. There will be time to use the powers and time not to. Then she’ll have to give them a rest sometimes. Basically she can’t use them on frivolous things (like changing the school menu) or use them to be mean spirited.
Dawn practices her magic and finds it helps her focus with rhymes. But while trying to conjure up a snack, she exhausts her magic and it goes missing for some days. Jennifer is trying to do a skating trick that she learned from a champion skater. Dawn uses her power so she’ll master the move perfectly. Dawn is excited her powers are back.
On the first day of school, Jennifer criticizes Dawn’s plain shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. She’s wearing a crop top (red) and a miniskirt (black) and high tops. She suggest Dawn do something a lil different but Dawn thinks she’s already different enough. Jennifer says she just wants everything to notice how special she is, but then admits she’d trade her popularity for Dawn’s good grades and talent with poetry. In class, a student (one of “those” girls) named Barbie tries to get the teacher to read their assignment-about something that impacted them emotionally-out loud because “secrets will bring them closer together.” So, Dawn casts a spell that makes Barbie speak in pig Latin. She takes the spell of and Barbie is quiet the rest of the day.
At lunch, Megan talks excitedly about auditioning for something that requires singing (School play? The choir?). Dawn sits with Jennifers popular friends (Kitty, Cindy, and Sue) along with Megan. They talk about the incident which (gives Dawn anxiety). Then the popular girls invite Jennifer to a sleepover. Only Jennifer thinks they’ve invited all of them. So, they quickly invite Megan and Dawn. Dawn wishes she knew how it felt to be more popular than Kitty, Cindy, and Dawn. She accidently arches her eyebrow. Cindy then gets very interested in Dawn’s poetry. She thinks about taking it back, but then Kitty and her crush Danny start talking to her about summer and she figures oh well. What’s the point of having magic if you can’t use it to be popular?
All of a sudden, everyone Dawn passes notices her. Even the shy, awkward, guy (Gary) asks Dawn to work on math problems together. Even the sourest teacher (Mrs. Kronovitch) is pleasant to Dawn. Dawn decides to tell Jennifer her secret, but on the way out the door people keep trying to stop her to talk. She ends up putting a holding spell on Gary and then just kind of gives up on catching up with Jennifer and bask in the attention.
The phone rings all through dinner. Megan calls and asks if Dawn’s picked a song. When she says she hasn’t yet, Megan sounds disappointed and there’s silence. Dawn promises she’ll be ready at lunch to practice. Dawn finds out one of the first downfalls of popularity. It takes up a lot of time! That night, she’s talked on the phone so much she’s too tired to do her math equations. She thinks about Gary and feels guilty about what she did to him. Then she debates the ups and downs of being popular. She’s not sure what she wants. She tries to cast a spell to give herself Albert Einstien’s brains but instead conjures up Albert Einstein. The next thing she knows, her mom is standing over her waking her up and Mr. Einstein is gone.
Dawn’s mom gives her a lecture about putting her social life in front of her school work and says she hopes this isn’t what the rest of the year will look like. She’s almost late for school and it’s just the second day. So, Dawn uses a spell to transport herself there. Barbie sees her when seconds ago she wasn’t there. She tries to tell Jennifer but there are too many people around. So, she spells away her popularity. It’s instant. Cindy snubs her when she speaks to her. Megan also brushes her off. Dawn realizes she’s turned herself into an outcast.
At lunch, Cindy un invites her to the slumber party. Dawn pretends it’s cool but gets teary. Then she starts to cry. Jennifer and Megan see her. Jenniffer comes over and says she’s still mad at her but can’t stand to see her sitting there crying. Dawn tries to tell Jennifer she’s under a magic spell. Jennifer tells her to prove it but she can’t do magic in a cafeteria full of people. So, Jennifer thinks she’s just making up excuses again. She says when Dawn is ready to tell her the truth she’ll listen.
Grandma Cassie advises Dawn to just let her powers come back and if she trusts Jennifer to show her (her) magic. Then she transports her (to her) for a visit. Over raspberry tea, her grandma fixes her social life and tells her even tho she won’t have her powers for a minute, eventually they’ll return. Dawn does great on the audition and hits the high note with out using her magic.
Dawn’s magic finally comes back and she gives Jennifer a display of weather magic and makes it snow. And now her cousin believes her and thinks its amazing! Jennifer is disappointed tho that Dawn can’t teach her magic or use magic to enhance her grade point average, but Dawn says she just doesn’t feel right about using her powers to cheat. But she says she’s still her favorite cousin and best friend. Dawn makes a wish that they’ll be best friends for a long time.
Rating 5 Interestingly I had never heard of this series. It reminded me of a mash-up of things. There was a tv pilot that never quite made it into a full series called “A Little Bit Strange”. There’s a part in the tv show where the daughter “Tasha” is studying and she conjures up George Washington to ask him which river he crossed. And it reminded of when Dawn conjures up Albert Einstein. Then it reminded me of a movie called “Teen Witch” because this was also about a teenage girl who found out she had powers and turned herself popular. It reminded me of “Twitches” when I thought about the part where Dawn was practicing her magic -and made a mistake of making cheese milk-. Just like some of the mistakes the Twitches made when learning their magic. I think that had my mind set when I was younger been what it is now (with my love of fantasy and magic) I definitely would have noticed this series. It even kind of seems a little familiar. Even tho I know I never read the books or can pull any memory of it. This was an ok start. It showed again that sometimes what you think you want (and wish for) isn’t exactly what you thought it would be.
Dawn Powell wakes up to a stormy day. This would be ok normally but it’s her 13th birthday and she’d planned a picnic. Her eyebrow arches and she feels emotional. Just like that the sun comes out. Her cousin Jennifer tells her to blow out her candle and make a wish. She thinks about wishing for looks but instead wishing for her birthday to be the start of something new and wonderful. She blows out the candles but they flicker back to life. They’re trick candles. Dawn worries that now her wish won’t come true, but her mother assures her it’s the love and good wishes of the people around her that make birthday wishes come true.
Dawn gets a brontosaurus that grows twenty times it’s size in water; a pair of sunglasses that make rainbows around everything you look at and a pair of socks with stars and moons from Jennifer. From Megan a colorful, cotton sweater and from her sister April a charm bracelet. The best charms are a silver guitar and an open book. Her brother Paul gets her a glow in the dark Frisbee. Her parents gave her a 10-speed bike (sky blue) with a pink ribbon around it. Dawn lays back on the grass and thinks of how weird it was that the weather cleared up.
Jennifer goes to show off a dive. When she jumps the tree cracks and Dawn wishes that the branch won’t break because if it does she’ll hit her head on the rocks She raises her eyebrow. The branch remains steady and Jennifer rights herself. Dawn’s mother suggests they all join Paul for a game of Frisbee but Dawn’s extremely shaken. She thinks maybe it’s just an overactive imagination and joins her brother and the others.
Dawn can’t keep her mind on the game and the Frisbee sails into the woods. When she raises her eyebrow in irritation is appears and flies toward her. She raises her eyebrow again and it flies in the opposite direction. She thinks stop and it does and freezes in midair. There’s no mistaking it. Dawn knows she has magic. Jennifer comes after Dawn wondering why she’s taking so long. Dawn doesn’t know how to tell her. So, Jennifer assumes its starting 8th grade stuff.
Dawn decides to keep her magic a secret. She’ll tell Jennifer eventually when she figures out what her magic can do. With a raise of her eyebrows, Dawn straightens her room and cleans her sisters dresser and mirror. Dawn starts to get a little anxious about telling Jennifer thinking maybe she’ll resent her or think she’s from another Planant. But no. This is Jennifer. She’ll be happy for her. So, she magic’s the phone to her to call her. It starts to ring but it’s Grandma Cassie asking about her birthday.
Grandma Cassie goes on to reveal she created a snow storm on her birthday. She says magic runs in the family. Dawn’s mother doesn’t have it tho. It skipped her. Paul does the thing with his eyebrows too but he won’t get powers until he’s thirteen. She says she has to be responsible. There will be time to use the powers and time not to. Then she’ll have to give them a rest sometimes. Basically she can’t use them on frivolous things (like changing the school menu) or use them to be mean spirited.
Dawn practices her magic and finds it helps her focus with rhymes. But while trying to conjure up a snack, she exhausts her magic and it goes missing for some days. Jennifer is trying to do a skating trick that she learned from a champion skater. Dawn uses her power so she’ll master the move perfectly. Dawn is excited her powers are back.
On the first day of school, Jennifer criticizes Dawn’s plain shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. She’s wearing a crop top (red) and a miniskirt (black) and high tops. She suggest Dawn do something a lil different but Dawn thinks she’s already different enough. Jennifer says she just wants everything to notice how special she is, but then admits she’d trade her popularity for Dawn’s good grades and talent with poetry. In class, a student (one of “those” girls) named Barbie tries to get the teacher to read their assignment-about something that impacted them emotionally-out loud because “secrets will bring them closer together.” So, Dawn casts a spell that makes Barbie speak in pig Latin. She takes the spell of and Barbie is quiet the rest of the day.
At lunch, Megan talks excitedly about auditioning for something that requires singing (School play? The choir?). Dawn sits with Jennifers popular friends (Kitty, Cindy, and Sue) along with Megan. They talk about the incident which (gives Dawn anxiety). Then the popular girls invite Jennifer to a sleepover. Only Jennifer thinks they’ve invited all of them. So, they quickly invite Megan and Dawn. Dawn wishes she knew how it felt to be more popular than Kitty, Cindy, and Dawn. She accidently arches her eyebrow. Cindy then gets very interested in Dawn’s poetry. She thinks about taking it back, but then Kitty and her crush Danny start talking to her about summer and she figures oh well. What’s the point of having magic if you can’t use it to be popular?
All of a sudden, everyone Dawn passes notices her. Even the shy, awkward, guy (Gary) asks Dawn to work on math problems together. Even the sourest teacher (Mrs. Kronovitch) is pleasant to Dawn. Dawn decides to tell Jennifer her secret, but on the way out the door people keep trying to stop her to talk. She ends up putting a holding spell on Gary and then just kind of gives up on catching up with Jennifer and bask in the attention.
The phone rings all through dinner. Megan calls and asks if Dawn’s picked a song. When she says she hasn’t yet, Megan sounds disappointed and there’s silence. Dawn promises she’ll be ready at lunch to practice. Dawn finds out one of the first downfalls of popularity. It takes up a lot of time! That night, she’s talked on the phone so much she’s too tired to do her math equations. She thinks about Gary and feels guilty about what she did to him. Then she debates the ups and downs of being popular. She’s not sure what she wants. She tries to cast a spell to give herself Albert Einstien’s brains but instead conjures up Albert Einstein. The next thing she knows, her mom is standing over her waking her up and Mr. Einstein is gone.
Dawn’s mom gives her a lecture about putting her social life in front of her school work and says she hopes this isn’t what the rest of the year will look like. She’s almost late for school and it’s just the second day. So, Dawn uses a spell to transport herself there. Barbie sees her when seconds ago she wasn’t there. She tries to tell Jennifer but there are too many people around. So, she spells away her popularity. It’s instant. Cindy snubs her when she speaks to her. Megan also brushes her off. Dawn realizes she’s turned herself into an outcast.
At lunch, Cindy un invites her to the slumber party. Dawn pretends it’s cool but gets teary. Then she starts to cry. Jennifer and Megan see her. Jenniffer comes over and says she’s still mad at her but can’t stand to see her sitting there crying. Dawn tries to tell Jennifer she’s under a magic spell. Jennifer tells her to prove it but she can’t do magic in a cafeteria full of people. So, Jennifer thinks she’s just making up excuses again. She says when Dawn is ready to tell her the truth she’ll listen.
Grandma Cassie advises Dawn to just let her powers come back and if she trusts Jennifer to show her (her) magic. Then she transports her (to her) for a visit. Over raspberry tea, her grandma fixes her social life and tells her even tho she won’t have her powers for a minute, eventually they’ll return. Dawn does great on the audition and hits the high note with out using her magic.
Dawn’s magic finally comes back and she gives Jennifer a display of weather magic and makes it snow. And now her cousin believes her and thinks its amazing! Jennifer is disappointed tho that Dawn can’t teach her magic or use magic to enhance her grade point average, but Dawn says she just doesn’t feel right about using her powers to cheat. But she says she’s still her favorite cousin and best friend. Dawn makes a wish that they’ll be best friends for a long time.
Rating 5 Interestingly I had never heard of this series. It reminded me of a mash-up of things. There was a tv pilot that never quite made it into a full series called “A Little Bit Strange”. There’s a part in the tv show where the daughter “Tasha” is studying and she conjures up George Washington to ask him which river he crossed. And it reminded of when Dawn conjures up Albert Einstein. Then it reminded me of a movie called “Teen Witch” because this was also about a teenage girl who found out she had powers and turned herself popular. It reminded me of “Twitches” when I thought about the part where Dawn was practicing her magic -and made a mistake of making cheese milk-. Just like some of the mistakes the Twitches made when learning their magic. I think that had my mind set when I was younger been what it is now (with my love of fantasy and magic) I definitely would have noticed this series. It even kind of seems a little familiar. Even tho I know I never read the books or can pull any memory of it. This was an ok start. It showed again that sometimes what you think you want (and wish for) isn’t exactly what you thought it would be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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