A Gift of Magic

A Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan

Three kids are given special gifts from their deceased grandmother: magic, dance and music. They gradually discover these gifts. They have settled down in the town where her mother grew up after her mother and father separated. (Previously they had traveled regularly as the family followed their dad around in a job as a foreign correspondent.) The dancer is able to quickly exhaust the training ability of the local ballet instructor. The girl with the gift of magic can read people's minds and influence outcomes. She gets in trouble when she completes a test before the teacher dictates the questions. She then goes to ESP testing and gets every question wrong. The tester realizes that she has has strong ESP powers and is trying to hide them, so he drops the testing. The boy with the gift of music doesn't do much with it. He can play anything with minimal effort, but doesn't bother to learn to read music. 

The girl with the gift of magic realizes that she can actually cause people do do things when she impacts her teacher. Later she feels guilty for wishing her sister would not go away for dance - and then sees her fall down the stairs. She is able to redeem herself when she is able to hear her brother when he is about ot drown as he is stuck on a sand bar as the tide is coming in. She helps lead his rescue and also learns that her sister will make a full recover and the injury is not her fault. She gains peace with the fact that her parents are not getting back together and will mary others. In the end, her mother has a new daughter, Lois, who has the gift of storytelling. (The author plugged herself into the book.) 

The book does a nice job of using just enough magic to advance the story without letting it become overwhelming.