Switch by Ingrid Law (review)

Gypsy Beaumont was twelve when readers last saw her in Scumble (BCCB 10/10); now she’s thirteen and in full possession of her “savvy,” a special power that members of her family acquire on their thirteenth birthdays (introduced in Savvy, BCCB 9/08). Her main problem now is the loss of her best friend, whose newfound junior-high sophistication makes her regard Gypsy’s free-spirited ways as babyish. Additionally, Gypsy finds out that her cranky, non-magical Grandma Pat has Alzheimer’s and is coming to live with the Beaumonts. This disturbing turn of events has the effect of scrambling everyone’s savvies: her perfect mother suddenly becomes clumsy and inept, her reclusive brother Samson swaps invisibility for spontaneous combustion that sets everything on fire but him, and Gypsy herself is able to stop time altogether. The lively wordplay of the previous books is less in evidence here, but clever plotting and amiable characters once again enable Law to produce a winning story that ties strong, complex emotions to creatively apt superpowers. An action-packed road trip reminiscent of events in the first book casually draws in a diverse set of characters and provides some mild romance for Samson and for Gypsy, but Gypsy’s main character arc involves completing her grief cycle with regard to her beloved, supportive Grandpa Bomba, who died in the previous book, and subsequently being able to accept her difficult grandma on her own terms. While familiarity with the first two books is not necessarily required, sprinkled references to events in those books will inspire readers to investigate the exploits of the magical, good-hearted Beaumonts.