I definitely wanted to be Katie Welker when I read this book. She might be an outsider with horn-rimmed glasses who other people think odd, and she might be stuck living with a mom she barely knows, but she can move things with her mind and talk to animals. And she has silver eyes! (I will admit here that the heroine of my own first attempt at a novel had silver eyes).

Aside from all that, I loved this book for the mystery and the action. When a mysterious stranger starts asking too many questions and people start accusing her of things she didn’t do, Katie is forced to go on the run, looking for answers about where her powers come from and whether there are others like her.

I can see in retrospect just why this book appealed to me so much as a kid (especially a shy bespecled kid who felt awkward and odd herself pretty regularly). In Katie’s world, she may be weird, but she’s also special. She’s part of something cool and mysterious, and there are others like her out there, if only she can find them. That meant a lot to me at the time.