In contrast to Amanda's possibly staged "witchcraft", the Stanley children, particularly David and Blair, seem to have some actual psychic gifts, but do not talk about them. David, while skeptical, goes along with the idea in order to get along with Amanda and protect his younger siblings. She offers to share her occult knowledge with David and his younger siblings Janie, Tesser, and Blair. Amanda claims to be a practicing witch, and arrives at the Stanley home in a ceremonial costume, bringing books on the supernatural and a caged crow that she claims is her familiar. Amanda is upset about her mother's divorce and remarriage, and about being forced to move away from the city and her best friend there. Plot Īfter his university professor father remarries, eleven-year-old David Stanley must make a series of new adjustments: first to his new stepmother, then to the strange old house in the country to which the family relocates, and finally to his new stepsister, twelve-year-old Amanda. It is the first in the four-book series about the Stanley family, followed by The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case, Blair’s Nightmare, and Janie’s Private Eyes. It was also nominated in 1972 for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. First published in 1971, the book was a Newbery Honor book for 1972. The Headless Cupid is a children's novel by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
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