[LISTENED TO: August 2017] Half Magic
I grabbed this book at the library not realizing that Tabby had just started reading it on her own.
The selling point for me on this was that it was described as being “set in Ohio in the 1920s, yet fresh and funny now as the day it was written.” And that was totally true. This book was very very funny and the location and time was pretty much irrelevant.
This is the story of four (very precocious) children: Jane, Mark, Katharine and Martha. The beginning of the book has a great time creating and addressing their characters:
Jane was the oldest and Mark was the only boy, and between them they ran everything.
Katharine was the middle girl, of docile disposition and a comfort to her mother. She knew she was a comfort, and docile, because she’d heard her mother say so. And the others knew she was, too, by now, because ever since that day Katharine would keep boasting about what a comfort she was, and how docile, until Jane declared she would utter a piercing shriek and fall over dead if she heard another word about it. This will give you some idea of what Jane and Katharine were like.
Martha was the youngest, and very difficult.
The children’s’ father was dead and their mother worked full-time. They were looked after by Miss Bick:
Miss Bick came in every day to care for the children, but she couldn’t seem to care for them very much, nor they for her.
The children love to go to the library and love stories. But mostly they want some adventure of their own. On the way home one day, Jane finds a glinting piece of metal in the sidewalk. Believing it a nickel she scoops it up, but that’s not all that exciting.
They sat there and couldn’t think of anything exciting to do, and nothing went on happening, and it was then that Jane was so disgusted that she said right out loud she wished there’d be a fire!
This is the tone of the book–shocking but funny. Truthful but unlikely to be spoken aloud. And it is wonderful.
Soon after she mentions the fire, there are fire engines roaring through town. And there’s more of that shocking description:
You all know what watching a fire is like, the glory of the flames streaming out through the windows, and the wonderful moment when the roof falls in, or even better if there’s a tower and it falls through the roof. This playhouse did have a tower, and it fell through the roof most beautifully, with a crash and a shower of sparks.
For the fire was not in a house, but in a backyard playhouse. And while that should be very sad,
the little girl the playhouse belonged to turned out to be an unmistakably spoiled and unpleasant type named Genevieve, with long golden curls that had probably never been cut; so that was all right. And furthermore, the children overheard her father say he’d buy her a new playhouse with the insurance money.
The children wonder if Jane is magic, or if any of them are But no new wishes come to pass. And when they get home, the children were rather cross with each other. But,
When their mother came home she knew something was wrong. But being an understanding parent she didn’t ask questions.
Such hilarious writing. At least for we adults (I think the kids liked it too).
So obviously, this charm is magical. But the next person to discover its power is the children’s mother in what becomes a very funny sequence. She is bored by her relatives’ vacation photos and that doesn’t end well. Of course she has no idea that she was part of a magical experience, she just thinks she is going mad. But it is through this magical moment that she meets Mr Smith, a strange man with a pointy beard who drives her home.
But, as the title suggests, the magic is only granted by half. After the children figure out there is magic afoot, they also figure out that it only works by half.
Each child gets a chance to wish something (accidentally or otherwise) . The absolute best one is when Katharine wishes that their cat Carrie can talk. Since t only half works, the cat can only half talk. The printed text is hilarious, but the audio book is spectacular. They give a cast list at the end of the book, but I cannot find it printed at the moment, so suffice it to say that the cast of the Words Take Wing Repertory Company is great. And the woman who reads for Carrie is hilarious. She says things like: “azy ooselfitz!” and “idlwidl baxbix!” And as it goes on and Carrie gets a little better at it, it’s even funnier : “Wah Oohm, Fitzbattleaxe!”
Once they figure out the technique of wishing for twice as much as they want, the surprise of the magic fades a bit but the story humor picks up. Mark wishes that they were n a desert island, which has all manner of amusing stories to it.
When we were listening to the book, we kept cracking up because each child’s adventure ends and it feels like the book might end, but then there’s another adventure to be had. So after Katharine’s adventure ends, it’s Martha’s turn. And then it’s Jane’s turn officially.
The kids get to go back in time to watch King Arthur and they meet Sir Galahad (and there is much fun with that setting).
But the most interesting twist comes when Jane wishes that she never even heard of the magic charm. Which works by half. And then she wishes that she was no longer a part of the family. Which also works by half. Jane becomes a child of a snobby family up the road. Much hilarity ensues, especially since the snobby family call her Mommy’s Little Precious (her real name is Iphigenia). How will they be able to wish her back to their family if she has the charm but doesn’t know what it is?
Eager has a lot of fun with different storytelling ideas. There is fun with mistaken identity and with the children confessions their problems to Mr Smith, the only adult who could possibly understand their predicament. And of course, the whole act of wishing things by double what you want is logistically and grammatically hilarious.
This book was so much fun. It plays around with so many conventions (the knights of the Round Table and Morgan Le Fay), the politeness of children and the foolishness of parents. And he messes with the whole convention of how magic should work.
The book doesn’t feel like it was written for children. Indeed the words choices and way the children talk are somewhat suspect, but their pompous way of speaking makes it all the funnier. So whether intentional or not, it was a great choice.
We loved hearing this book aloud but I’m sure it’s a treat to read as well.
This is the first of 7 books in the Tales of Magic “series” and I’m looking forward to more of them.
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