New York Times columnist Pogue's debut novel is a youth fantasy about magic and, eventually, a shifty pharmaceutical company. Abby Carnelia discovers that she is endowed with magic when she makes a hard-boiled egg spin after tugging on her ears. Her power is specific, inexplicable, and thoroughly useless, and her attempt to find an explanation leads her to Camp Cadabra, where she meets other children just like her. The story progresses at a leisurely pace, kept buoyant by the snappy dialogue between kids, until the last third of the book, when Camp Cadabra's hidden agenda is revealed. Abby's emergence as a leader among her peers is not entirely convincing, and the intrusive narrator, who we later discover is Pogue himself, is at times jolting. Still, the premise that every child is magical is clearly expressed without ever being heavy-handed. Abby's triumphant finale will have young readers contemplating how they, too, are special.

Hard-boiled eggs that spin when 11-year-old Abby tugs on her "magical" earlobes? Such is her inexplicable and useless "power." She jumps at the chance to enroll in a summer magic camp, hoping that someone will explain how she does it. There she meets other kids who possess strange, pointless talents. Eventually these abilities earn Abby and other "special" campers a place in a mysterious "super camp" that turns out to be a covert, tightly secured facility where kids are held against their will—and worse. All in all, the novel is breezy fun; the author keeps things moving at a sprightly pace, and Abby is bright and fully sympathetic. The secret of the "super camp" and the reason why the "special kids" are held captive, however, is, like Abby's power, a little lame. Abby exploits her own and her fellow hostages' unique skills to effect an artful escape, though, paving the way for a happy ending and implying Abby's future success. Despite its flaws, this debut makes the nice point that all kids are special, magical power or no. (Magical adventure. 9-12)

<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">New York Times columnist Pogue debuts with the charming story of 11-year-old Abby, who discovers that she is a part of “a rare, very special breed of children who can bend the laws of nature—in tiny, pointless ways.” Her ability? Making a hardboiled egg spin when she tugs on her earlobes. Eager to make sense of this “power,” she attends a summer camp for magicians, and is soon sent on to a “Super Camp” for kids with similar supernatural abilities. It quickly becomes apparent that the camp is a front for a darker operation, and Abby and other gifted campers (one can fog up a window by counting by twos in Spanish in a weird voice; another can levitate, slightly, by imagining buffalos walking backwards in diapers) find purpose in their seemingly pointless powers. One gets the sense that Pogue family in-jokes may be a source for some of the dialogue, and the author even inserts himself into the story. But this in no way diminishes the kid-pleasing nature of Pogue's brand of humor or the message that all gifts, no matter how absurd they seem, have value. Ages 8–12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(May)

Gr 4-6 While preparing a salad one afternoon, sixth-grader Abby Carnelia makes the astonishing discovery that when she tugs on her earlobes, she can make a hardboiled egg spin. The library and Internet research give her no insight into this seemingly useless power. Then her dad suggests that she attend a summer magic camp. Abby hopes that it might help her find out why she is able to cause this strange phenomenon. Pogue's first novel for children has an original enough concept to keep readers entertained. Short chapters and plenty of dialogue move the story along, and Abby is a protagonist many readers can relate to as she tries to discover if there is something more sinister going on at Camp Cadabra. Marred only by a slightly schmaltzy ending, this book will please fans of Bruce Coville's "Magic Shop" series (Harcourt) or other readers looking for a little magic. Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL