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''A Gift of Magic'' is a novel written by Creator/LoisDuncan in TheSeventies.

An old woman dies and gifts her grandchildren with talents. To her oldest grandchild she gives the gift of dance, her grandson, the gift of music and to Nancy, the one that resembles her the most, she gives the gift of magic.

The story takes place following the divorce of Nancy's parents. In the past her family had moved around all over the world, which gave her a great love of geography, and at the beginning of the novel they settle down in her mother's old hometown in Florida. Nancy, upset at her parents' divorce, begins to develop her PsychicPowers and has to come to terms with what that also entails.

Despite the somewhat similar premise, this was actually written a few years before ''{{Literature/Carrie}}'' and is much less action-packed and violent.

Not to be confused with ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi'' which is something completely different.
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!! This novel provides examples of

* AmicableExes: The parents. They get along; they just can't stay married because the kids' mother wants to settle down in one place, and their father has a continued need to travel the world.
* ArtisticLicenseStatistics: In one chapter Nancy is given a standard test to measure psychic ability. She is asked to pick, without looking, all the white cards out of a deck of cards filled with an equal amount of black and white cards. Because she wishes to hide her [[PsychicPowers ability]], she picks all the black cards so that she would get all the "wrong" answers and fail the test. The examiner sees right through Nancy's ploy because there is an equal probability of picking only white or only black cards and explains that if she really wanted to screw up the test, she should have picked a roughly equal amount of black and white cards at random.
* BrilliantButLazy: Brendon, to Nancy's irritation.
* DeTerminator: Kirby is hellbent on becoming a dancer.
* DirectLineToTheAuthor: At the end of the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue, it's mentioned that Nancy's mother had one more daughter named [[spoiler: Lois]], [[Creator/LoisDuncan who had the gift of storytelling]].
* DoubleStandard: Nancy believes that her sister is "badly adjusted" because she [[{{Determinator}} would rather pursue her dream]] of becoming a dancer than chase boys and live at home. After this, she accuses her [[BrilliantButLazy brother of wasting his talent]] by not taking his musical ability seriously.
* FemaleMisogynist: Nancy, at least in regards to her sister wanting to be a dancer instead of staying home.
* ForYourOwnGood: Supposedly the reason Nancy (maybe) uses her powers to push her sister down the stairs and break her foot.
* FunctionalMagic: The ''gift of magic'' in this book is essentially [[PsychicPowers ESP]] with a few atypical features, like the ability to [[MentalTimeTravel communicate with people living in the past]], and the potential to give other people talents and magical powers.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Justified. All of the siblings are given "gifts" in a particular area, so they're enormously talented in their respective skills and don't need to work very hard to achieve a high level of proficiency.
* HaveAGayOldTime: Nancy's sister is named Franchise/{{Kirby}}.
* HealingHands: After breaking her sister's foot, Nancy feels guilty and (maybe) uses her powers to help heal it.
* HypocriticalHumour: Derived mostly from the double standards in this book.
* IWishedYouWereDead: Nancy wishes her sister would stay home and not go to dance school, and her sister falls down the stairs and breaks her foot. Her mentor argues that Kirby skipping breakfast that morning because she thought a dancer should be thin is a more likely cause; it's left ambiguous who is right. Nancy still feels horrible whichever it was.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: See above; while Nancy's powers are definitely real, how strong they are is up for debate. Her ESP works, but it's never confirmed either way whether she is also a strong enough telekinetic or chance manipulator to actually shove Kirby down the stairs and then heal her, or whether those were coincidences caused by ordinary means.
* MentalTimeTravel: Nancy is able to see the past, specifically her grandmother's bestowing of gifts on her and her siblings. She is even able to dialogue with her long-deceased grandmother.
* MundaneUtility: Infuriatingly, all Nancy tends to do with her powers is household chores and to occasionally meddle with other people's lives
* ParentsAsPeople: Unlike a number of Duncan's stories involving divorced parents, this one portrays both parents sympathetically, having split up because their respective goals in life are mutually incompatible.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Nancy has a bit of a StayInTheKitchen attitude going on towards her older sister.
* PsychicPowers: Nancy's psychic powers drive much of the plot of the story.
* SadistTeacher: Ms. Green, the social studies teacher after finding out about Nancy's ESP. She purposefully gives C's to Nancy when she does A level work, and when Kirby is depressed after breaking her foot and isn't doing well in school, Ms. Green coldly askes her "You don't read with your leg, do you?"
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Ms. Green is old enough to retire at the end of the book, and does so because she doesn't want to deal with Brendon (whom she never even met).
%%* StalkingIsLove
* SuperpowerLottery: Of the gifts given to the grandchildren, Kirby gets to be a talented dancer, Brendon a gifted musician and [[spoiler:Lois a writer]], but Nancy gets freaking magic powers. Arguably [[spoiler: Lois]] got the best deal because Nancy and Brendon squandered their abilities and Kirby's talent would be of no use to her by the time she gets to her mid-forties, except maybe as a teacher. [[spoiler: Lois]], however, is frequently using her power past the age most people would have retired, and she's gotten several movie deals out of it.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Subverted. Kirby is the {{Tomboy}}. She's more athletic and [[DeTerminator driven]] than her sister, Nancy (the Girly Girl). She shuns the idea of chasing after boys, making friends with the catty locals and staying at home as a housewife, but instead of excelling at sports, she's a talented dancer.
* WhatTheHellHero: Nancy, despite being the heroine and being described as such, is ''not'' [[{{Jerkass}} a nice person]]. She (maybe) knocks her sister down the stairs to prevent her from attending dance school and [[ForYourOwnGood "ruining her life"]]. Although it's subconscious and she does feel bad after, it's still shocking as hell. In addition to this, Nancy tries to use her PsychicPowers to run her mother's life and get her parents back together.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: After a TimeSkip, it's revealed that Brendon only uses his musical talent for playing at parties, Kirby ends up becoming a famous dancer, [[spoiler: their mother has another daughter named Lois (who is implied to be the author)]], and Nancy hardly ever uses her magic for anything but [[StalkingIsLove spying on her children]].
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