Lucy Lancaster is Totally in Control

Young witch Lucy Lancaster is preparing for a super fun weekend with her favorite cousin, Skye Simmons-Young. Lucy plans to play a board game called “Snails and Letters” with Skye and make charm bracelets afterward. Lucy hopes her magical hiccups don’t cause any disasters. Finally, Lucy decides to stop her hiccups, once and for all. But how do you cure a case of magical hiccups? 

Lucy’s magical hiccups cause endless problems, so she performs “The No More Hiccups Spell.” To Lucy’s surprise, the spell transfers her magic hiccups to Skye! Skye’s hiccups make Lucy’s stuffed animals float. Lucy cannot hide this magical occurrence from her cousin, so she lies and says her friend Bruce created “stuffed robots” that read minds. Skye is thrilled at the silly magic that has taken over their playdate. Lucy quickly reverses her spell before their parents see the floating animals, causing her hiccups to return and the animals to lose their magic. Skye is disappointed, but the cousins spend the day happily pretending to be witches together. 

Lucy Lancaster is Totally in Control follows Lucy as she tries in vain to keep her powers in check. Many young readers can relate to her desire to maintain control over her day despite outside forces that threaten to ruin her plans. Readers will learn more about Lucy’s life at home, where she eats a very nutritious breakfast before tidying up her room. Lucy is a very responsible protagonist who exhibits compassion and ingenuity. On the other hand, Lucy’s lying about Bruce is implied to be a necessary and useful tactic she employs to keep her magic a secret, and no commentary on the potential harmfulness of lying is offered. Lucy Lancaster Is Totally in Control offers adults the opportunity to discuss Lucy’s behavior with young readers and apply it to their own lives. 

Despite their differences, Lucy and Skye’s relationship demonstrates the joy of family connections. Lucy is determined to have a fun weekend with her cousin Skye, and many readers will find their bond relatable to their own family experiences. The story introduces Skye’s two mothers, which normalizes different family arrangements without making them the focus of the story. This allows children to see diverse families as part of everyday life. 

Lucy Lancaster is Totally in Control is a fun book suitable for independent readers. Large black-and-white illustrations appear on almost every page. The illustrations are charming and highly expressive, effectively highlighting the key details of every scene and visually conveying the emotions of various characters. Each chapter begins with a full-page illustration that seamlessly transitions readers into the next section, picking up where the previous chapter left off. The Lucy Lancaster Series can be read in any order because each book focuses on a new adventure. 

Lucy Lancaster is Totally in Control continues the themes of self-reliance and problem-solving present in the previous Lucy Lancaster books. Lucy must quickly figure out how to handle the situations caused by her hiccups without revealing her magic. Lucy also learns that, even if her plans do not turn out the way she wanted, she can still have a fun day. What may have seemed like a disaster at first could turn out to be an opportunity.  

Sexual Content  

• None 

Violence  

• When Lucy and her cousin Skye lose the game “Twisted Tower,” their make-believe characters fall off the tall wizard tower. Skye exclaims, “I fall to my doom!” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• None 

Language  

• None 

Supernatural 

• Lucy’s magic manifests in two ways: her spontaneous and uncontrollable hiccups (accompanied by her toes tingling) and the spells she recites from her spell book. 
• Lucy hiccups while eating breakfast, causing the orange in her hand to explode, “spraying juice and pulp everywhere.” She later reflects on how “her magic seemed to have a mind of its own.” 
• Despite having cleaned her room, Lucy’s hiccups cause “an avalanche of games, dress-up clothes, and stuffed animals” to come out of her closet. Her cousin Skye assumes that Lucy had shoved everything into her closet before having guests over, and Lucy is unable to prove otherwise. 
• Lucy and Skye play a board game called “Twisted Tower” in which they must scale a wizard’s tower to receive his blessing. Lucy hiccups while rolling the dice, and it flies into the air, around the room, and back to her. Skye remarks that the path of the dice was “like magic,” and Lucy denies it. 
• In secret, Lucy makes her charm bracelet spell the word “COUSINS” as a surprise for Skye. However, she hiccups while completing it, and the letter beads become “regular old beads.” 
• Skye hides in Lucy’s room, preparing to scare Lucy and make her hiccups go away. Lucy sits on the other side of the door with her stuffed dog named Boris. She hiccups, causing Boris to come to life. He starts to move and talk, telling Lucy, “I am the guardian of this room . . . None shall pass.” Boris floats, and Lucy worries that Skye will open the door and see him in the air. 
• Lucy’s spell book magically appears while she is trying to catch the floating Boris. She opens the Book of Spells and sees “The No More Hiccups Spell” has appeared in the pages. 
• When Lucy recites “The No More Hiccups Spell,” she sees a swirl of magic sparkles leave the animated Boris and fly through her bedroom door. The magic seemingly transfers to Skye, who immediately begins hiccupping. 
• Skye’s new magic hiccups cause all of Lucy’s stuffed animals to “rise into the air. Boris is flying, too, and returns to life.” Skye wonders if the stuffed animals are magic, and Lucy hurriedly lies that they are robotic. Skye hiccups again, and the stuffed animals begin “cleaning up [Lucy’s] messy room.” 
• To keep the magic hiccups a secret and prevent Skye from hiccupping, Lucy decides to “reverse her last spell.” She uses her spell book and follows the directions for “How to Catch the Hiccups,” a new piece of text that has appeared in the book. The spell succeeds, and the stuffed animals all fall to the ground. 
• Lucy’s hiccups return to her, and she makes Boris fly without Skye knowing. 
• Lucy and Skye end the day playing make-believe. They pretend to be witches with magic wands, casting spells on everything around them. Both Lucy and Skye fall asleep dreaming that they are flying on broomsticks. 

Spiritual Content  

• None 

by Gabrielle Barke