Rating: 
Summary: A great new Series about Witchcraft
Review: Kate is sick and tired of not being noticed. The guy she likes dosen't know she exists and most of her her "best friends" aren't really good friends. But everything about her life changes when she accidently takes out a book on Wicca while gathering books for her History project. She finds a spell inside that will make the object of her affection want her as much as she wants him. But when she casts the spell, it horribly backfires. All the guys in school (including the ones with girlfriends) are turning their attention to her. And now all the girls hate her, including her friends. In a panic she turns to two other poeple who have checked out the same book from the library, anti-social Cooper, and shy Annie. But will they help her? Or are they as afriad of magic as she is.I found this book to be very entertaining. I'm soooo looking forward to reading the others. It deserves five stars. I just hope the other books are as good. I reccomend it to anyone who's a fan of Buffy or Charmed. It's a mix of the two!
Rating: 
Summary: Unimpressive, by comparison.
Review: Isobel Bird, Circle of Three: So Mote It Be (Harper, 2001)
I made the mistake of reading the first book in Isobel Bird's Circle of Three series too too after reading J. G. Passarella's fantastic novel Wither, obviously, because I read the many reviews of this book and wonder what they're talking about.
Between Amazon and various other sites, I've come across seventy-five or so reviews of So Mote It Be, and many of them adhere to the same theme: the book's treatment of wicca. And while Bird certainly takes a more knowledgeable and open-minded approach to the subject than most authors, what's done here doesn't hold half a candle to Passarella's treatment of the same material; this is Dick and Jane to Passarella's Cormac McCarthy.
That aside, I would have been more than willing to overlook the simplistic treatment of that aspect of the source material had the characters been worthwhile. Problem is, well, they're not. Bird violates rule number one of writing for kids/young adults: "don't talk down to your audience." The characters here are straight out of Sweet Valley High, both the protagonists and their nemeses, the popular kids. There's no depth whatsoever to a single character to be found here. (Granted, some of them Bird is setting up for later books, and there it's excusable. But in your main characters? Never.)
Those who found Kate an excellent role model (and again I say she would be, were she at all three-dimensional), I cannot recommend highly enough you go procure yourselves a copy of J. G. Passarella's Wither. Now. This very moment. An enthusiastic (and accurate) approach to wicca can, truly, be found in a three-dimensional character, and that character is Wendy Ward. **
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Intro to Wicca
Review: I came upon this book by accident and by the time I finished reading the series(within a week), I knew it was no accident. I just turned 13 and was already depressed about being so misunderstood. No one saw the world like I did. I grew up formulating my own beliefs, never knowing where I got them from. I was tired of being different, I felt wierd instead of unique. After I read the Circle of three series, I found Wicca and Witchcraft. I have been practicing it for almost two years now, and it has changed how I see myself. It has changed everything, but who I am, that just became so much clearer to me, and is proceeding to get clearer every day. I am so thankful to Isobel Bird's series for being there for me to find. I don't think I could of handled the introduction to Wicca without it. It was an amazing series with perfectly developed characters and real information on Wicca, not Hollywood style. There should be more teen fiction like this.
Rating:
Summary: A good start for a great series
Review: I had planned to write reviews for each of the Circle of Three books as I read them, but I was just too bloody eager to jump into the next one each time to sit down and type. Therefore, this is really a review of the series as a whole. I think this is appropriate, because the books actually tell one story in 15 parts. I picked up "So Mote it Be" at the library because I'd been saying for years that there should be some Wiccan fiction for teens and young adults and figured that I should give this a shot. I was fully expecting to be as disappointed as I was by Silver Ravenwolf's "Witches' Night Out", but I was very pleasantly surprised. I am not a teen and have not been such for a few more years than I'll readily admit to in public. However, I was easily able to look past the slightly basic language and plotting. The characters seemed very alive to me almost from the beginning. I have known all these girls (even dated them all, in my younger days) <I shouldn't have to add this, but I'm being metaphorical here> and was amazed with how well the author portrayed the girls, their trials, their triumphs, and even their not always logical thought processes. Her characters were teen girls, not children nor adults, and they almost always rang true as such. As a Witch, however, what I was most pleased with was the presentation of Wicca. This is the Craft as it is really practiced. Perhaps, since it is so different from Witch to Witch, I should say "the way it COULD be practiced". This is not hollywood Wicca (as much as I love Buffy, the all female thing and the black-eyed thing always bug me a bit). This is so close to the true practice that an aspiring Witch could do much worse for source material. In fact, I really hope that the author decides to write a non-fiction book. The fifteen part story follows the girls from their first fledgling steps into Magick, through training in Wicca, and finally to initiation. I think that even the purists who will say that "we don't do it that way" will have to admit that one *could* do it that way, and be drawn into the story. Just let go your preconceptions about what YOUR path is, and have fun following the Circle of Three on theirs. You'll thank me. :) The circle is open, but never broken...
Rating:
Summary: pretty good teen fare
Review: I'm not a teenager, but this was an enjoyable read.
Good, light fare. Likeable characters, and the plot is not too outlandish.
Presented Wicca in a positive light, it might be a good way to introduce nervous family/friends to the idea that you are interested in Wicca.
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