Twelve All in Dread: The Twelfth Witch and Other Stories by Juliana Rew

I knew I would like this book when I saw the main character’s name in the first story–The Twelfth Witch. Her name is Tesseracta (or Tessa), so I had a flashback to being eight years old–several decades ago–but I still remember reading A Wrinkle in Tim for the first of many times and learning not only what a tesseract is but why mindless conformity is no virtue. Such lessons (and a lot of fun) can also be had in reading Twelve All in Dread. That Tessa is a vegetarian also helped to endear her to me. There is plenty else here to love, from enchanted swords and literary allusions related to the great poet Dylan Thomas, magical crystals and prescient comets. The subtext is rich–for instance, the Orionid meteor shower appears after being predicted by Merlin–yes, that Merlin, who may be a hamadryad–in connection to the historic battles for the throne of Britain. Oh, and there are dragons. I loved these stories!