Category:  Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Dragonfly Publishing, Inc. ISBN-10:  0971047340 Type: Fiction Pages: 150 Copyright: Jul 31 2000 On a dare, twelve-year-old Jenna Douglas leads her older brother, Cal, and her cousin, Annie, on a midnight exploration of Hill House, the neighborhood haunted house. Jenna walks into the house in Percy, Connecticut, but exits into an alternate world, where magic works and cats talk. Here she meets Nigel, Master Sorcerer of Earth One, his young friend, Rob Hathaway, and Rob's adopted brother, Victor, a telepathic feline. After a perilous encounter with a sorcerer from Earth Two, another alternate world, Jenna finally makes it back to Percy, but her life has changed forever. Her life changes forever the night twelve-year-old Jenna Douglas leads her brother and cousin on a midnight exploration of Hill House, the local haunted house. Jenna enters the house in Percy, Connecticut, but exits into an alternative world where magic works and cats talk. Here she meets Nigel, Master Sorcerer of Earth One, his young friend, Rob Hathaway, and Rob's adopted brother, Victor, a telepathic feline. After a perilous encounter with a sorcerer from Earth Two, another alternate world, Jenna barely makes it back to Percy. When Master Nigel suddenly reenters her life two weeks later, Jenna begins a journey along a dangerous road that twists through Past and Present in alternate worlds and eventually leads her to a surprising destiny. Excerpt First, you had to get past Brutus the Bouncer. Black as midnight, one-eyed and bob-tailed, he lay across the top step of the porch like road kill on State Line Road. I knew better, of course. Once dead, any self-respecting corpse stays that way. Not Brutus. He'd wait till you jumped over his body, then twist into the air and sink his teeth into a leg or thigh. This discouraged most intruders, including Cal and Annie, who came with me the first night I sneaked out to Violet Hill. Cal led the way as we walked up the overgrown path to the old house. My brother's a year older than Annie and me and likes to think he's in charge, but we all knew this adventure was my idea. All my life I'd heard whispers about the old abandoned house that sat on the corner lot at the end of our street. Nobody came right out and said it was haunted, but I knew something strange went on there, and I wanted to see for myself. Was I scared? You bet! That's what made me itch to get inside.

Earth Magic Highly Recommended
EARTH MAGIC by Paula Blais Gorgas Genre: Young Adult Fantasy 4 Stars ~ Carol Durfee, reviewer All of Jenna Douglas' life she has heard whispers that the house on Violet hill is haunted, and one night her brother, Cal, her cousin Alice and Jenna go to find out for themselves. The first obstacle is to get past the big black cat, Brutus, guarding the door. Jenna, the only one to make it into the dark house is drawn to a light in the back. The light leads her out the back door where she enters a parallel universe, Earth One. In Earth One, Jenna meets Master Sorcerer Master Nigel; Victor, a talking cat; and Rob, an apprentice sorcerer. She learns of an evil sorcerer Remus who is in Earth Two wanting to take over Earth One. Master Nigel, Victor and Rob help her find the portal so Jenna can return to her own universe. Then a week later during spring break on the Gulf Coast Alice turns up missing. Jenna knows it has something to do with the parallel universe she visited but how will she find her way back there and save Alice? She knows the people around her will never believe there is a parallel universe. Will Master Nigel, Victor, and Rob be able to help her and will she be able to help them fight against Remus? EARTH MAGIC is brimming with adventure, action, magic, and talking cats. The reader is drawn into the story with every turn of a page. The story is fast paced and exciting and the dialogue moves it along smoothly. Jenna is your average 12-year-old with a thirst to quench her curiosity. The reader can relate to Jenna's fear to tell her parents the truth, knowing if she tries, they will never believe it. Master Nigel is very much the accomplished sorcerer and works well with Rob, Victor and Jenna. Rob is every bit the determined student and the readers find themselves pulling for him to succeed. Twelve-year old Alice is not the adventurer that Jenna is, she is more interested in boys. I found the plot refreshing with its fantasy world and I had to remind myself this was a Young Adult book. The fantasy world is brought vividly to life; the reader feels they are witnessing the action. I highly recommend EARTH MAGIC for young and old alike! Paula Blais Gorgas talent shines through in this tale and she shows us why she is a former winner of the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart for her previous young adult novel, COURT OF HONOR. <><><>