Francine (Eff) is the twin of a double-seventh son and a reluctant member of a sprawling family of magicians who moves to the edge of the frontier in an alternate United States. Eff's Columbia is the nation we would have been if old New York had stayed New Amsterdam, and if Lewis and Clark hadn't returned from their travels but were instead presumed dead of a mammoth stampede, or dragon attacks!

The details of this first installment of the proposed Frontier Magic series reads like one of the worlds of Philip Pullman, with a large dash of Anne McCaffrey and the family life of Laura Ingalls Wilder mixed in. Some young readers, especially tweens, will enjoy the fantastical details Wrede is so deft at weaving into the narrative. Eff is no Harry Potter though - she is definitely not an orphan, and takes no joy in magic as she (and others) blame herself for everything going wrong because she was born unlucky thirteen in her large family. Her mind is firmly stuck on blending in and trying to find her own way among all her talented and attention-grabbing siblings. While some are criticizing Wrede for not depicting Native Americans, the Aphrikan (African) characters play major roles in Eff's development; as it turns out, Aphrikan magic (a Taoist style of sensing of universal power) is the sort that she understands most naturally and in which she finds potential talent.

I'll be excited to see how this series develops, and if future volumes feature other characters more prominently - Wrede has built herself a lot of room to play here on the wild and woolly frontier, and I anticipate many 5th-8th graders will identify with Eff's not-so-unfamiliar growing pains on the Columbian prairie.