Something stopped Nita's hand as it ran along the bookshelf. She looked and found that one of the books, a little library-bound volume in shiny red buckram, had a loose thread at the top of its spine, on which her finger had caught. She pulled the finger free, glanced at the title. It was one of those "So You Want to Be a… "books, a series on careers. So You Want to Be a Pilot there had been, and So You Want to Be a Scientist… a Nurse… a Writer… But this one said So You Want to Be a Wizard. A what?

Nita pulled the book off the shelf, surprised not so much by the title as by the fact that she'd never seen it before. She thought she knew the whole stock of the children's library. Yet this wasn't a new book. It had plainly been there for some time — the pages had that yellow look about their edges, the color of aging, and the top of the book was dusty, so you want to be a wizard. hearnssen, the spine said: that was the author's name. Phoenix Press, the publisher. And then in white ink, in Mrs. Lesser's tidy handwriting, 793. 4: the Dewey Decimal number. This has to be a joke, Nita said to herself. But the book looked exactly like all the others in the series. She opened it carefully, so as not to crack the binding, and turned the first few pages to the table of contents. Normally Nita was a fast reader and would quickly have finished a page with only a few lines on it; but what she found on that contents page slowed her down a great deal. "Preliminary Determinations: A Question of Aptitude. " "Wizardly Preoccupations and Predilections. " "Basic Equipment and Milieus. " "Introduction to Spells, Bindings and Geasa. " "Familiars and Helpmeets: Advice to the Initiate. " "Psychotropic Spelling.

Psychowhat? Nita turned to the page on which that chapter began, looking at the boldface paragraph beneath its title.

WARNING