A Fistful of Sky (A LaZelle Family Novel)

The LaZelle family of southern California has a secret: they can do magic. Real magic. As a teenager, a LaZelle undergoes "the Transition"--a severe illness that will either kill him or leave him with magical powers. If he's lucky, he gains a talent like shape-changing or wish-granting. If he's unlucky, he never experiences Transition. If he's especially unlucky, he undergoes Transition late, which increases his chances of dying. And if he survives, he will bear the burden of a dark, dangerous magic: the ability to cast only curses. And curse he must, for when a LaZelle doesn't use his magic, it kills him.In Nina Kiriki Hoffman's A Fistful of Sky, Gypsum LaZelle is unique among her brothers and sisters: she has not undergone Transition. She resigns herself to a mundane, magic-bereft existence as a college student. Then one weekend, when her family leaves her home alone, she becomes gravely ill.. A misfit in a family of spellcasters, Gypsum LaZelle possesses no magical ability whatsover, until a mysterious and grave illness leads to the awakening of a strange and frightening power. By the author of The Thread That Binds the Bones. A misfit in a family of spellcasters, Gypsum LaZelle possesses no magical ability whatsoever, until a mysterious and grave illness leads to the awakening of a strange and frightening power Title from e-book title screen (viewed on July 21, 2005).