Phoebe and the Gypsy — Andrea Spalding

Phoebe Hiller's visit to her grandmother's home in England is not going well at all. Not only does everyone in the village seem to know who she is, but Phoebe is treated like an alien every time she opens her mouth. Worse, the episodes of second sight that have sometimes worried her have come back to plague her more than ever. It takes a chance meeting with a gypsy fortune teller to give Phoebe a new acceptance of her special gift. With the gypsy's friendship and guidance, Phoebe at last learns to use her ability in a way she never could have foretold.

In this short novel for young readers, Andrea Spalding has returned to the English landscape of her childhood: a small village where gypsy families sometimes halted their caravans to sell clothes pegs, sharpen tools and tell fortunes.

A storyteller and writer of fiction for children, Andrea's last book for Orca, Sarah May and the New Red Dress, received a starred review in Quill & Quire and was selected for the Ontario Library Association's 1998 Canadian Materials Choice list.