Alchemy by Margaret Mahy

Billed as magic versus willpower, the real thrill of this young adult fantasy fiction from story master Mahy is how much seventeen-year-old Roland changes over its course. He starts off as a high school dominator, taking it as his due to get the best marks in school, sit on the best outside seats during lunch hour with the other high rankers in his gang including most popular girlfriend, being liked by the teachers,  and generally having his way. By the end, his casual judgements of others and his sense of arrogant deservingness have been replaced by a sensitivity and a compassion that make him much more likable.

Mahy makes it credible by bringing these qualities out so gradually that the reader understands Roland had it in him all along. Roland slowly discovers things about himself and his family that make him understand other people in a new way, too. The plot of alchemy between Roland and Jess, the girl he is assigned to investigate, parallels the subtle developmental arc, the true alchemy, that of Roland’s character. This is the kind of reading I love.

New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2003