The Other Ones - Softcover

Jean Thesman has written several award-winning novels for young adults, including:

The Rain Catchers -- ALA Best Book for Young Adults; School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Booklist Editors' Choice; Golden Kite Award
Rachel Chance -- ALA Notable Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults
The Last April Dancers -- ALA Best Book for Young Adults; ALA Quick Pick; IRA Children's and YA Choice; American Bookseller Pick of the Lists
When the Road Ends -- ALA Notable Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults
and, most recently,
The Other Ones -- an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a barnesandnoble.com Top Ten Teen Novel of 1999, an International Honor Book of the Society of School Librarians

Viking will be publishing her In the House of the Queen's Beasts in Summer 2001.

Jean Thesman lives in Washington State, the setting for almost all of her books.

copyright © 2000 Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.

In Thesman's latest story set in the Pacific Northwest, a child's stubborn efforts to suppress her witchly abilities nearly ends in tragedy. Bridget has tried hard since kindergarten to be ``normal,'' hiding the fact that she sees and hears things others cannot. Her Aunt Cait, another witch, begs her to accept her true nature, as does xiii (pronounced ``shhh''), her irascible supernatural guardian, who has also taken to uttering cryptic but increasingly urgent warnings. Thesman places her young protagonist squarely between two worlds: a nonmagical one filled with coldhearted, if not downright inimical, people, and another awhirl with spirits and wonders; as Bridget becomes violent classmate's newest victim, discovers that no one will take seriously her claim that a young neighbor has been abandoned, and learns that the odd new student Althea and her parents, werefalcons stricken with a private grief, are in danger, the pressure to intervene with magic reaches an agonizing level, released at last in a soaring climax. Once she gives in, Bridget discovers to her astonishment that she's no longer an outsider, but a welcomed new member of a loving Wiccan circle. Replete with intriguing conflicts, lightened by Bridget's wayward libido and humorously rude relationship with xiii, this tale is reminiscent of Patrice Kindl's Owl in Love (1993) for its strong casting and vivid storytelling. (Fiction. 11-15) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.