Lucky 13

Teen Witch #1

by Megan Barnes

Sarah Connell thinks of herself as a perfectly normal girl... until the Halloween she turns thirteen... and finds out the truth. She's a witch.

At first Sarah is freaked by the news. Then she begins to wonder about the possibilities. Can she make a love potion to use on cute Cody Rice? Will school be a snap from now on? Will she be able to get anything she wants?

Sarah has a lot to learn, as she discovers when spells start going wrong, and things get hilariously out of control. Whoever thought it would be so hard to be a Teen Witch?

Genres: Young Adult, Witches, Teen

187 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1988

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

First on a four part series that I loved as a teen and love now even though I'm nearing 40. Fun fantasy with vivid and descriptive narrative. Written by a teenager too so the references are incredibly representative of typical 1989.

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute book about a girl who finds out she's a witch on her 13th birthday. I loved the autumn setting, the Halloween dance, and Sarah's cool witch aunt who runs a bookstore/cafe and helps navigate Sarah through her questions and uncertainty.

Weirdly enough, nothing was explained about how or why she's a witch and why no one else in her immediate family seems to know anything about witchcraft. I hope that is maybe touched upon more in the following books.

Sarah also reads WAY older than 12/13. The way she acts/dresses/talks is more 16/17 and I felt myself confused about who was the older sister when she interacted with her family.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book varied a lot to me. A 12 year old high school student(odd?)... who loves fashion turns 13 sometime in October and finds out she's a witch. There was some confusion like with the ages being 12 and 13 but some of the scenes seeming as if she and her peers are older, but other scenes seemed like children picking on one another. The apprentice witch gets some magic help, but like most teen witch stories seem to go, she comes across occurrences of things not going as she planned. It had some more original takes in the book too though, which was cool. The chapters were generally long, so there was only 14, which is fine, but it skipped to multiple different events within the same chapters instead of spacing them out more (in one of the chapters, there was even multiple different times/settings on the same page). I debated as I was reading on what kind of a rating I would give the book, but I did like the story a lot more near the end and would consider reading the others in this series.

[Myrra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in high school and loved it. And I'm a little sad it's so hard to find.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was what the movie was based on. It’s not. Written about two high school girls, but written like it was meant for a grade school reader. Don’t think I’ll continue the series.

[Jaena Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this when I was still in elementary school. Don't remember much, other than I didn't particularly DISlike it. Hence the two stars.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books as a kid

[Jennifer]

Oh man, I just remembered these books and how much I loved them as a kid. I have NO IDEA if they're objectively good. But at the time, they were my life.