Published 1997
★★★
Back on the nostalgia reads: I stumbled across a mention of Sabrina the Teenage Witch the other day and thought I’d see how the books have aged. I didn’t watch the show (maybe an episode or two at a friend’s house?), but we had one or two of the books hanging around, and I’m pretty sure the library had more.
In this first book of the series, Sabrina wakes up as a sixteen-year-old…and as a witch. The magic of this particular witchy world is…let’s say it’s a little loosey-goosey. There are technically rules (can’t turn back time without permission!), but for the most part Sabrina can just point, wiggle her fingers, maybe say a few words, and presto chango*! Magic. Accidentally turn someone into a pineapple? No biggie.
I’m guessing the plot points pull from multiple episodes of the show, because the plot is semi-incoherent (various events strung together by magic and little else) and Sabrina is a scatterbrained little ditz whose only interests are Harvey (Harvey Dwight Kinkle, poor kid) and clothing—though she doesn’t seem to have any sense of style beyond “it’s the 90s, gotta have those tan slacks and satin tops!”
Still, the sense of possibility here is kind of fantastic. More recent YA about magic typically comes with all sorts of rules and limitations, but if I had magic…? Give me the sort that Sabrina and her aunts play with, where you can create a temporary date with Man-Doh and the point is more about frivolity than about saving the world.
*I checked the spelling with Merriam-Webster, but surely presto change-o would make more sense?
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