Magic by the Book [Hardcover]

Nina Bernstein (Author), Boris Kulikov (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2005 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

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

From Booklist

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (February 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374347182
• ISBN-13: 978-0374347185
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,837,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars pales next to the books it's a tribute to, December 11, 2005

By 

B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Magic by the Book (Hardcover)

It's hard not to appreciate a book whose author clearly intends it to be a literary homage to some all-time favorite young fantasy authors: E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, Mary Norton, etc. And whether the tribute is subtle in terms of theme or visuals or plot or more directly stated, as when one of the characters references a book by the above mentioned authors, it is always done without a sense of irony--there's a sincere sense of love there.
Unfortunately, Bernstein didn't channel enough of those authors in her writing, as Magic by the Book falls woefully short of its models. The title book that mysteriously appears one day in a basket of library books, sweeps three young children (Anne, Emily, and Will) into its pages and into adventure. In the first, Anne and Emily meet Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest and help to avoid a major disaster. In the second, Will shrinks down in size and acts as battle champion/questor for the good inhabitants of his backyard garden, threatened by a nasty bug and his army of insects. And finally all three get swept into an alternate War and Peace and they try to save the book itself from some sort of wolfman.
The three set pieces vary in quality but none is particularly strong. The Robin Hood section feels a bit perfunctory and flat. Will's section is the most wildly inventive and by far the most engaging, but it lags somewhat by its end. And the last section feels almost insubstantial, not quite all there, as if it were rushed in to beat a deadline.
Will is the most alive of the three children, Emily the least so, and Anne falls somewhere in the middle. The last section offers a glimpse of stronger characterization with regard to Anne but just enough to tease and then finally disappoint as its never really fully explored or resolved. The children's speech patterns are somewhat inconsistent, seeming to shift between age-appropriate and more adult. The family dynamics among the three are nicely handled and are probably one of the book's strong points, though again more could have been done with them. And there's a nice focus on the power of reading.
One kept pulling for this book based on its obvious inspirations, but in the end it never came off as a choice companion to those other books or as its own standalone. If anything, it performs its tribute in untended fashion, showing just how rare, just how special, is the literary magic of those authors like Nesbit, Norton, and Eager. And thus the recommendation to try them rather than Magic by the Book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Everything, September 6, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Magic by the Book (Hardcover)

"Magic by the Book" does indeed have ""amazing everything." Story line, plot, characters, dialogue, even though a FEW people would say that this is simply a shadow of E. Eager it is certantly not. I love all fantasy, "The Mists of Avolon" (amazing) "Eragon" (outstanding) C.S. Lewis (classic), Tolkien (more realistic than history class) etc. and now when I look at my list of my favorite books "Magic by the Book" is the newest entry. Yes, i think that Edward Eager (Classic auther, amazing) would certainly be proud!
~Laura Werle

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enchantments for all Ages!, March 17, 2005

By 

David Huyssen (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Magic by the Book (Hardcover)

"Magic By the Book" is one of the most engaging, lucidly written, and altogether delightful yarns -- of any variety -- I've encountered in years. The story of the Thornton children's adventures with their mysterious library tome brought me back so vividly to my own childhood, and to that sense of possibility when opening the pages of a new book, that I felt like a ten-year-old all over again! For any adult who wants to recapture that sense of possibility, and for any child discovering it for the first, second, or hundredth time, this book is not to be missed!