Magic by the Book - Hardcover

Bernstein, Nina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374347182 ISBN 13: 9780374347185

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2005

Synopsis

Neither Anne nor Emily remembered choosing the book at the library, but when as they read it, the boundary between their world and the one described in the book disappears. Suddenly they are in Sherwood Forest, where they join Robin Hood's band. The further adventures that await Anne, Emily, and their brother, Will, are the kind they had always dreamed about. They had yearned for magic as strong as the spell cast by the stories they loved best. But then an uninvited guest turns up at their parents' garden party. The sinister man snatches the book with the intention of using its powers for evil, and the siblings find themselves engaged in a battle to regain possession of the book.

Richly detailed black-and-white drawings enliven this intriguing literary fantasy, which pays homage to some of the heroes of the author's childhood, among them E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, and Leo Tolstoy.

About this title

About the Author

Nina Bernstein is a staff reporter for The New York Times. Her book The Lost Children of Wilder was a National Book Award finalist. This is her first children's book. She lives in New York City.

Boris Kulikov illustrated Morris the Artist by Lore Segal. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

Grade 4-6–Anne, Emily, and Will Thornton discover a mysterious library book that becomes a portal into their favorite books and memories. Anne and Emily help Robin Hood to battle King John and the Lord Sheriff of Nottingham while Will shrinks to miniature size to pursue a quest in the backyard garden. Together, the siblings follow an evil villain into a jumbled version of War and Peace, answering riddles and fending off wolves in order to keep the book from falling into the wrong hands. Sadly, this book suffers from defects that detract from its smoothly written prose and ingenious premise. Bernstein imbues her characters with adult language ("My own true steed," six-year-old Will says of his grasshopper transportation) and adult sentiments (a solid few pages describe how the family cleans the house). The children's adventures waver as the author fails to believably support the main action of the story (Will's quest rambles, and the villain the children fight is never properly explained). For distinguished domestic fantasy set in the past, try instead the works of Edward Eager, E. Nesbit, or Lucy Boston.–Caitlin Augusta, The Darien Library, CT

Gr. 4-6. In her first effort for children, Bern-stein, a journalist and author of nonfiction National Book Award finalist The Lost Children of Wilder (2001), explores a fantasy premise in the tradition of Edward Eager and E. Nesbit, in which a mysterious library book launches siblings Anne, Emily, and Will into "the kind of enchanted adventure[s] they had always dreamed about." The children's recent readings supply the rough framework for their magical journeys, which plunge them into a tale straight from Robin Hood, a heroic confrontation with giant bugs, and a scene from War and Peace. Between bouts of brisk action, Bernstein probes realistic childhood themes--sibling tensions, ambivalence about growing up, the thrill of mastering a challenge. Some children may feel, as young Emily does, that they are "missing half the story," and artist Kulikov's slightly homely figures probably won't be universally appreciated. But voracious readers, particularly those who share the protagonists' quirky intellectual upbringing, will be captivated by the narrative's classic feel and the ever-thrilling notion of books opening literal doors to fabulous worlds. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Magic by the Book:

By the time they caught sight of the book, both glancing down to the basket in the grass at the same moment, they knew their mother's voice would soon be echoing out over the hollyhocks from the first lighted window, calling them in to set the table for supper. Strangely excited, they plucked the book from the basket. Sitting side by side now at the edge of the canvas hammock, they opened it to the first paste and began to read.

"Dusk, the long blue dusk of summer, was already falling on the garden by the time they discovered the book," they read. " It was a small, shabby volume lying at the bottom of the wicker basket..."

There on the yellowed page were their names, their ages, their hammock, and their copper beech tree.

"Anne, it's magic, it just has to be magic," Emily whispered, looking into her sister's face. Pale under her freckles in the fading light, Anne hushed her and turned the page.

"As they sat reading, the tall pines at the bottom of the garden filled with mist. White and thick, it swirled up the slope to meet them, obscuring arbor, apple tree, azaleas, until only the tops of the trees were visible, knit by the fog into a forest. And from this forest suddenly there came the sound of approaching hoofbeats."

Even as they read the words, Anne and Emily heard the sound, muffled at first, but unmistakable and coming closer: a horse's hooves on the forest floor. Starting up with a cry, Emily was enveloped in the mist she had just read about, and clutched for her older sister's hand. The book tumbled to the ground, and the two girls found themselves alone in a fog-shrouded forest clearing , braced for the galloping horse and rider to burst upon them.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374347182
• ISBN 13: 9780374347185
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Kulikov Boris
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240