[In A Gift of Magic each] of the three Garrett children has a distinctive personality and talent. The older sister, Kirby, is determined to be a dancer, and little brother Brendon is a phenomenal pianist, although he has little real interest in music. But this above-average story centers on middle-child Nancy's gift of extrasensory perception and on the responsibilities, problems (in school, with her siblings), and advantages it gives her. It is an understanding high school counselor in love with her divorced mother who convinces Nancy of the values of her gift, and of the need to use it without trying to manage the lives of others (e.g., sister Kirby and her mother, whom Nancy had wanted to stay with her father). Background on extrasensory perception is well woven into the story, and current interest in the occult and psychic phenomena will widen the audience for the book.
Peggy Sullivan, in her review of "A Gift of Magic," in School Library Journal, an appendix to Library Journal (reprinted from the November, 1971 issue of School Library Journal, published by R. R. Bowker Co./A Xerox Corporation: copyright © 1971), Vol. 18, No. 3, November, 1971, p. 122.
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