Small Magics

This cosy fantasy builds to a thoroughly satisfying and exciting climax and there’s lots to enjoy along the way too. Molly Flynn is apprehensive about meeting her new foster carers, Pat and Priya. Quiet, reserved and teased by other kids as ‘a weirdo’, she’s got used to being moved from placement to placement, but nothing can compare to her new home: kindly and very welcoming, Pat and Priya run an antique shop which actually turns out to be an emporium selling ‘small magics’, everything from something to remove stubborn stains, to a gadget that tells you when you’ve run out of cheese, all via spells. The shop staff include Ciara, a banshee, and Frank, a goblin, who becomes a particular friend to Molly. Along with Pat and Priya, the young members of her new foster family Wren and Lorcan have magic of their own too, as does Molly, though it takes longer to emerge than she’d wish. Their happy life is threatened when someone starts using dark magic to accumulate huge power and with the grown-ups, including Frank, incapacitated, it’s down to the three children to save the day. The world Alex Dunne conjures up is as warm and delicious as one of Priya’s scones, and the gentle emphasis on her characters finding themselves and ‘their’ people adds an extra layer for readers to enjoy. This is ideal reading for everyone who’d like to come across ‘small magics’ themselves.