Salt & Storm

July 28, 2014
Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe always thought she would continue her family’s line, doling out spells and magical charms as the sea witch of Prince Island. That was before her mother forced her into a traditional Victorian upbringing and the dull life of a pastor’s stepdaughter. After Avery predicts her own murder through a dream, she makes increasingly desperate attempts to untangle her family secrets and unleash her magic. While Avery’s otherness sets her apart from the natives, she finds an ally in Tane, a harpoon boy with tattoos that carry powers of their own. Their tragic love story is just part of Avery’s transformation from captive daughter to a woman who can guide not just her own life, but the very wind and sea that surround her home. Debut author Kulper’s fictional whaling island, off the Massachusetts coast, pulsates with vibrancy as the author draws from real events and folk tales to illuminate the toil and turmoil of the industrial age, imperceptibly weaving strands of truth into an inventive story of self-sacrifice and sorcery. Ages 12–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger.

August 15, 2014
A 19th-century 16-year-old witch yearns to return to her birthright. The anachronistically named Avery Roe is destined to be the next Roe witch, selling her magic to protect the whalers of her New England island. Her grandmother had been raising her as her apprentice until Avery's magic-hating mother dragged her away to town. Four years later, Avery is still trapped by the only magic her mother is willing to use: a curse preventing Avery from fleeing or soliciting help. Forced to live without magic, dressed up in fancy clothes and trained in a Victorian young lady's accomplishments, Avery is both self-loathing and self-harming. While she can interpret dreams for anyone who asks, Avery lacks any hint of how to unlock her magic. Her aging grandmother can no longer serve the town's magical needs-and meanwhile, Avery's been having prophetic dreams of her own murder. A young, tattooed Polynesian sailor named Tane needs Avery's dream-telling assistance, and he swears he can end her mother's curse. When Tane tattoos Avery with his magic (a regrettably exoticized moment), perhaps she'll be stronger than her mother at last. Secrets abound in Avery's world, and nobody's as villainous as she suspects. A fat, slow-moving, sensuous fantasy for fans of watery paranormals. (Fantasy. 13-15)

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August 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe's destiny is to become the next witch of Prince Island. It's the 1860s and Avery is descended from a long line of witches that use their magic to keep the island's whaling men safe at sea. When the protagonist turned 12, before fully unlocking her magic, her mother dragged her away from her training at her grandmother's cottage to raise Avery in town to be a proper society lady without magic. A Roe witch cannot be killed but can be maimed. Avery's once-beautiful mother was severely beaten and left with a devastating facial scar before Avery was born. To protect Avery from this fate, her mother cast a spell that prevents the girl from ever leaving town to see her grandmother. The teen has the gift of accurately interpreting dreams. After repeatedly dreaming of being a slaughtered whale, Avery knows her fate and despairs of ever escaping to fully master her magic and prevent her death. Then she meets tattooed Tane, a harpooner from an island near New Zealand, who comes looking for answers to help him avenge his murdered family. He believes his powerful magic can help Avery break her mother's spell. Kulper's debut seamlessly blends fantasy elements with the more realistic life of a whaling settlement during the 19th-century. This unusual fantasy isn't a quick read. It's long and the characters are not instantly likable, but they do grow on patient readers because the author portrays them as real, flawed, and multidimensional; teens will learn to love and root for them.-Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2014
Grades 8-11 Avery Roe, who can predict the future from dreams, comes from a long line of magical women, and she is destined to become the witch of Prince Island, a small whaling community in New England. But before her grandmother can teach her the spells passed down through generations of witches, her motherwho chose a life far away from magic and the witch's cottage on the rocky shoretakes her away and warns her of the sacrifices a Roe woman must make to become the witch. Avery is determined, however, and she recruits the help of a handsome, magically gifted Polynesian boy, Tane, who promises that he can help her overcome her mother's powerful curse and fulfill her destiny. But the closer she gets to Tane, the more her mother's haunting warnings begin to ring true. Debut author Kulper infuses her atmospheric novel with richly detailed descriptions of whaling in nineteenth-century New England, and through tenacious Avery's lyrical first-person narrative, she explores poignant themes of destiny, sacrifice, and free will.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)