Soul of a Gentleman Witch

Gr 9 Up–Callum has been 17 for a very, very long time. He’s a witch, making potions out of the spell shop once owned by his parents. He also lost his soul in a bargain with Lucifer and must complete 666 tasks in order to get it back. Callum is just three tasks away from finishing the challenge when Lucifer offers him an opportunity to clear his debt entirely with just one more job: escort a teenage boy named Augustus from London to New York. What follows is a portal-hopping adventure for which Callum is entirely unprepared. Despite some brief instances of gruesome violence, the story is often light and irreverent; Callum’s talking cat familiar, Narcissa, is a particular highlight. During their journey, Auggie and Callum pick up a band of ragtag companions that serve as a warm community for the two boys as they bond during their travels. However, the plot of Ferraro’s (The Alchemy of Moonlight) story often meanders away from Callum and Auggie’s central quest, pitting them instead against an ever-expanding group of secondary villains that carry the story’s momentum off-course. Callum is cued white; Auggie is Latine.