W.I.T.C.H. #1: THE POWER OF FIVE

This skimpy launch of the W.I.T.C.H. series centers on five teenage girls who possess unusual abilities (the first letters of their names form the acronym of the series' title). A full- color insert in comic-book panels lays out a mysterious mission in which the Oracle of Candracar speaks of the Chosen Ones, five human girls who will safeguard "the Veil." The Oracle singles out brown-haired Will, who starts off the novel on her way to a new school. Readers soon meet Irma, who can make "fountains, whirlpools and bubbles frolic obediently around her" in the bathtub. Riding her bike, Will catches sight of her reflection in a window and sees the image of herself as a young woman ("her figure... enhanced ") wearing exotic clothes and sporting wings (a foreshadowing of her later transformation). And when Cornelia's mother announces that the girl cannot attend the school Halloween party until her room is clean, the girl mutters, "Why can't rooms just clean themselves?"—and hers does. Two mysterious beings appear at the party, one of whom begins "hurling toxic psychic waves" at Will. This duo represents the world of evil separated from the earth by the Veil, which has grown perilously thin. If the "chosen" five friends fail at their mission to guard the Veil, "life as all knew it would be destroyed." The denouement (in which curiously only three of the girls participate) lacks suspense and subtlety, and is more concisely related (and repeated) in a closing comic-strip panel insert. The next three installments will also release this month; a trading card featuring one of the friends (and their stats) is bound into the back cover. Ages 8-12. (Apr.)