[Mindi Flyth]

Thanks for a lengthy and thoughtful review. Some interesting observations.

There are other witches and warlocks out there, but they're not too common and they try to keep it underground. Joe knows magic is real and he can do some magic using stuff he learns in old books, but he is doing it all on his own, he is not naturally skilled and he is impatient and kind of lazy. He has always longed to meet other magic users, and he's never found them. But they are out there.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

It may be that as a transgender person myself, it's easier for me to sympathize with Joe's eventual feelings about his gender than it would be for some people who don't identify as transgender. (I'm assuming you don't, but please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

By the end of the story Joe considers himself a grown man and a young girl, simultaneously. He is not completely one or the other, and he is OK with that. That comfortable flip back and forth we see, of Joe acting like a girl or a grown man as it suits him, seems like a healthy development to me. When Joe tells Coach Mungo he is not a "normal" little girl and he calls himself transgender, he is telling the truth. He is an adult/child man/girl, at peace with himself.

I could've ended it with Joe and Tammy in middle school, learning magic, but the flash forward 5 years was to show how Joe grows and how everybody changes around him. Joe is kind of a teenage rebel, but he is also focused on growing up right this time. Tammy is very comfortable with her sexuality and she seems like a good person still, but she has become a rather mischievous and even arrogant young witch. Ben and Katie have basically become Joe's parents, and they love him but it's a struggle. We get some idea of where everybody is headed with their lives, and we see that they still have troubles but things seem to be working out. It's about as close as I ever get to a happy ending!

I'd be interested what other fates you imagined for the characters. If you feel like my ending closed things off, where would see it going instead?