Customer Reviews

M Is for Magic

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Neil Gaiman, the author of the novel Stardust (which was made into a great film with Robert De Niro and Claire Danes) and the Sandman stories /graphic novels from DC Comics, is a natural storyteller. He is also a noted children author with a special talent to talk to children and adults with the sense of wonder of a child. He also has a children's audio collection of his picture books.

Now to this current audio collection, these are sort of stories you would hear when you were ten and around a summer campfire. The narrative talent of Gaiman draws the listener in and keeps you in. You don't care if these tales are for children, young adults or adults, he makes all these PG type stories great.

What makes this collection great is good storytelling. Like Ray Bradbury's S is for Space, which he notes in his audio forward, Gaiman uses simple ideas and meshes them into mini horror or thriller tales . . . and keeps you interested!

It is worth your time to get this collection for your family. When you do, get one for the adults and one for the kids

What a lot of people seem to miss when complaining about this book is that it was assembled for younger readers. This book was made in the style of Ray Bradbury's R Is For Rocket. It's primary function is to introduce younger readers to Gaiman's work. All the stories here I would feel comfortable with my children reading, while most of the titles from Fragile Things, I might hesitate. This book does contain some repeat stories, some hard-to-find material, and some new stories, as well. Read this book to get a sneak peek at Neil's new book, The Graveyard Book. All in all, a wonderful book, and I'm thankful for it.

M IS FOR MAGIC is a collection of eleven short stories. This book was geared for elementary/middle school but I thought that I couldn't read many of the stories aloud in my classroom because some of the themes are pretty adult.

I liked many of the stories, especially THE WITCH'S HEADSTONE. This was a story about a real boy who was living in a graveyard and being raised by ghosts. He decides to do a very kind thing for a ghost who didn't get a gravestone and the story follows the adventure that goes with that decision.

I also enjoyed THE CASE OF FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS. It was a detective story set with nursery rhyme characters. The detective needs to solve the mystery of who killed Humpty Dumpty. It is told with attitude and is very funny.

There are also stories that are scary or just plain creepy. The story about the jack-in-the-box just gave me chills. So if you want to read some good, strange stories that only take about an hour to read, check this book out.

Reviewed by: Marta Morrison

I was very disappointed when I bought this book. I thought it would be a new collection of short stories by Gaiman, but it turns out it's just a compilation of select stories from FRAGILE THINGS and SMOKE AND MIRRORS.

Waste of money.

Let me first state that I'm an adult Gaiman fan, and I really like his YA work, including this collection. Other reviews have covered what stories are included, so what I'll focus on is the age level so parents can make an informed decision. I bought this book for myself, but to justify its purchase, I figured that my kids (under 10), who are very good readers, could read it, too. I consider myself a pretty liberal parent, but after reading this, I'll tuck it away for when my kids are older. The specs give a reading level of 9-12 years, and I think that's really deceptive. Yes, a reader in that age range can read the words, but the content, the feelings evoked, are much more adult. Even the Humpty Dumpty story requires an understanding of the private "dick" (as in "detective") genre to be funny. Other bits that come up in passing are marital infidelity, troll privates, and teen hormones. Nothing is going to corrupt a kid, by any means, and all of these things occur very naturally in their context, but I'm not sure an eight- or nine-year-old kid is really the right audience. Some of the stories would be great to read aloud to younger kids who like spooky stories, but overall, I think the book is really for young ADULTS, not elementary-age kids. If you are a parent or teacher choosing reading material for kids not yet in high school, my advice is to read the book yourself first.

So I've read a few Neil Gaiman books of all kinds (comics, YA, full length adult novels) and thus far the absolute worst I could say about any of them has been that it was "Okay", so when I saw this one cheap on Kindle I figured why not, surely I couldn't go wrong. Well, except for the fact that I was seeing mixed reviews. Upon further review of the reviews I noticed something. The really bad ones all seemed to center around one theme -- It appears in the 9-12 year old category and there seems to be much debate about if it belongs there. I figured I'd read it and decide for myself if those complaints were warranted.

While I am no prude and do think my nephew (who is about to turn 9 as I write this) is actually mature enough to read this book, I could see why some parents would object. What could parents object to? Well: There is a description of a nude troll, he's male if that tells you anything about what you'll find in this book. No? Okay well we learn that a teenage boy wants to touch breasts. Or that a married man appreciates getting "laid" by women other than his wife. A certain word that rhymes with witch makes an appearance. There's some drinking (including by teens).

These references are brief and are not graphic. In fact what I've just typed here, that's about it for the questionable material I think, and about as graphic as it is in the book (other than my editing of that one word here). I suspect most children have seen, heard, and read worse especially if they've watched any tv or movies. Then again, yes some parents would find it a bit much for the average 9 year old. So while it claims to be a book for reading levels ages 9-12, well yes a 9 year old could probably read this book with no problems but it's up to you to decide if they're mature enough to handle brief mentions of nudity and sex (as I said, not graphic, but still there in passing). I'd probably suggest Coraline or InterWorld instead if you want to introduce your younger child to Neil Gaiman before this one (of the ones I personally know now anyway).

That said, I'll be rating it as an adult reader. Did Humpty Dumpty REALLY have a great fall? What about the troll under the bridge, what's his story? What's the deal with Jack in his box? What happens when the months of the year get together? Is finding the Holy Grail really a good thing? Who or what really scratches up the cat? Things like this are what make up the short stories in M is for Magic. It's a fun fast read. Fans of Neil Gaiman will probably have read much of this before. Me? I'd only read the passage from The Graveyard book so I loved it as it was new to me and yes quite magical.

M is for Magic is a fine book, and it'd might even be great- except that most of this material was previously published in Fragile Things. So, if you have Fragile Things and liked it, carefully check out M is for Magic before buying it. You may be a big enough fan to want it anyway, or you may want to wait for the softcover.

Note that this review is more about comparing the two books for the Gaiman completist or fan. If you don't have Fragile Things, by all means get one or the other, his writing can be wonderful!

Oh, please, give the G-man a break. This collection isn't meant for hardcore fans; it's for elementary school and junior high kids who have never read any of his stuff before. (Let's face it; many of the stories in "Fragile Things" and "Smoke And Mirrors" aren't exactly kid friendly.)

And I think it's a great idea. Now that "Coraline" and "Stardust" movies are coming out, there will be a lot of parents (and aunts and uncles, and grandparents...) who will be glad to give their kids an introduction to stories like "Sunbird", "Chivalry" and "The Case of The Four And Twenty Blackbirds", without worrying about the munchkins stumbling on anything too adult or upsetting. For the grown-ups, there's "Interworld" and "The Eternals" already out, so let the curtain climbers enjoy this curtain raiser.

I have read Coraline and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and so became interested in his shorter fiction. I find Mr. Gaiman's writing a delight with unconventional stories cleverly conceived and nicely written. His writing can appeal equally to children and adults. M is for Magic is a perfect example of his fertile creativity.

The stories have some bizarre plots:

* the months of the year personified as humans engaged in telling stories over a roaring bonfire
* a detective is hired to discover who killed Humpty Dumpty
* a child discovers a remote bridge haunted by a troll
* children find an old sinister toy that carries a curse
* a mysterious man relates a story of an impossible deception
* an old woman finds the Holy Grail in a second hand store
* a black cat save a family from great evil
* two young boys end up at the wrong party
* a motley group of epicures search out a rare bird for their dinner

The final selection is a short story version of a chapter in The Graveyard Book concerning a witch buried with no headstone. As more than one reviewer pointed out, the collection is probably not suitable for younger readers, despite the publishers suggestion that the book is for readers "10 and up". I would put the age at around 12 and up due to some phrases used by characters and the party story would probably be unsuitable for younger readers. Parents should read the book before offering to their children.

For young adults and adults the book is humorous and quite creepy in turns. The stories can be quite strange and take one to unimagined places and situations. I found them a delight because they are unpredictable and very original.

These are the types of stories that make me want to get back into writing on a regular basis. They are fresh and full, and have such a wide range of imagination that they make me remember what it is to create a world that can easily be traveled to and from in the course of 15 minutes.

While some of the stories are dark, a mature tween should have no difficulty in dealing with the themes and the questions that are posed by these stories. "October in the Chair" and "Troll Bridge" were my personal favorites. A personification of the months and what their stories would be hit squarely on my feelings, and an interesting twist on the story of the troll under a bridge made my heart cry.