Customer Reviews

Magic by the Book

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

"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

"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!

Magic By the Book
By Nina Bernstein
Illustrated by Bosis Kulikov

This will be a great book to add to my collection of magical adventures.
Ann, Emily and Will have a whole pile of books to read during the summer vacation.

There is one book that is left in the bottom of the basket. When they discover the book, and begin to read, it says that Ann and Emily had one book in the bottom of the basket that they just now discovered.

Everything they do is written into the pages of the book.
The children go on magical adventures into stories that they have read and loved. Ann and Emily go into the pages of Robin Hood. When they come back, they cannot turn the pages of the book and they are upset, wishing to go on another adventure.

The next adventure, it turns out, will be for their younger brother, Will alone.

All three children share an adventure into the book, War and Peace. Ann began reading the book, which was a little too grown-up for her. She didn't read the ending, so they aren't sure how their adventure will turn out.

If you are a fan of Edward Eager, you will enjoy this fun story. If you enjoy reading books about children going on magical adventures this book is for you.

Jill Ammon Vanderwood
Author of magical adventures
Through the Rug
Through The Rug: Follow That Dog (Through the Rug)

Though this is a book for older young readers, we have been reading it to our 6 year old nightly. The language is vivid and rich and a pleasure to read aloud. We happened to see this book showcased at our local library and deffo plan to purchase! This is a wonderful book that shows the promise of the magic of reading and using one's imagination to create the world being read from the page. Splendid!

Cheers!
Andie

"Magic By The Book" is utterly charming, especially for young people who are avid readers. The Thornton children's adventures derive from books they love; anyone who has been swept up in the magic of a good tale or the wonder of a great picture book will appreciate the joy Anne, Emily and Will feel when they fall into the pages of a mysterious library book and find themselves participating in what they'd just been reading about. Bernstein pays homage to Nesbit and Eager without being derivative. The book has a lightness and freshness of its own, compassion for its characters, and a strong sense of time and place: Whitestone, Queens, in the 1960s. For this baby boomer, who grew up in a bookish, academic family, Anne's adolescent pangs and the details of family life in that era, especially the parents' cocktail party at the end of the story, rang clear and true.

Being an avid fan of children's fantasy books, from Goegre MacDonald's "The Princess and the Goblin", Nesbit's "The Wonderful Garden", through C. S. Lewis and Edward Eager up to Harry Potter, when I saw the dust jacket of "Magic by the Book" I was intrigued and read it as soon as I could get my hands on it. I was throughly disappointed. Plot devices, characters and even dialog phrasing were lifted wholesale from Edward Eager's classics. To be fair, Eager lifted plot devices himself from E. Nesbit's earlier post-Victorian classics. However, he had the excuse of updating them for the 1950's and 60's readers. Bernstein does not. All of Eager's books are still in print and available. His clean language and clear-cut, likeable characters were not improved upon by Bernstein. The book's illustrations suffered by comparison as well. The little girls in particular appeared grotesque. N. M. Bodecker's frowning Martha was more endearing. As for Bernstein's more creative foray, the over-long adventure of little brother Will, eventually became tedious in the extreme. The Tolstoy incident was little better. About halfway through this hodepodge, I was longing nostagically for "Magic by the Lake." My recommendation? Go out and re-read Eager.

Earlier this spring I read aloud to 2 granddaughters age 6 and 8. Both are readers themselves and each had just read the French version of Robin Hood -- Yes! they are bilingual! They couldn't wait for the evenings pre-bed sharing, and had tried to pre-empt the action, with only partial success. We had a lot of fun and excitement together, together with problem solving, co-existing with the relationships of the two sisters and, at the end, the involvement of their smaller brother. They are the big sisters of a just-turned 3-year-old, so were very involved and concerned with his activity.
The book is indeed magical -- and more so than many of the magic ( but not similar at all!) books I had read aloud with their mother. And, although they are both independent avid readers, the changes of vocabulary between the two languages made my explanation of some of the English words useful. (Similarly, their explanations to me of how the French Robin Hood had used words that weren't that familiar to me reversed our teacher-student roles in a pleasant way.)
This book was a highlight of my long Christmas with a family in Paris! I can't recommend in enough.

First of all, a novel that pays homage to E. Nesbit and Edward Eager catches my attention. In your mind's eye imagine going to the library, checking out a seemingly ordinary book---then discovering that it is extraordinary, unlike any book you've ever seen. You can enter the story. You can visit Sherwood Forest and be with Robin Hood. This story idea is brilliant; I tip my hat to Nina Bernstein. She did an incredible job with this. Buy this novel for the young people in your life, they'll love it.

I've never been so glad to put a book down as when I finished this one. That is not a compliment.

"Magic by the Book" is very poorly put-together, and seems to be more of what a starry-eyed adult wishes to read about in a children's adventure, than an actual adventure intended for children.

The characters are very unconvincing. We are told that the three siblings, ages 11, 9 and 6, all love to read. Great! What do they like to read? "War and Peace", and other classics that are not only not intended for children, but are far above their reading and comprehension level, and most likely out of their areas of interest. They also seem to have encyclopedic knowledge of poems and ballads.

But I could handle that, I suppose, if not for their sheer precociousness. Their dialog shows an intelligence that is very unrealistic for children. The kids are at their best when they intelligently recognize things that children might be able to figure out on their own, such as when they wonder if their being trapped in a book could result in their actions changing the story's outcome. They're at their worst, however, when they understand adult concepts, use their large knowledge of books and ballads and poems to drop references, and act like little adults. In particular, when discussing strategy to carry out rescue operations, any ability to relate to these characters as children completely disappears. Especially when six-year-old Jack, who is described as being unable to read, does it. Nothing could kill suspension of disbelief quicker than having a not-yet-literate six-year-old suddenly start understadning situations that older kids might not readily recognize.

The "little adults" comparison isn't helped by the unappealing illustrations. The kids look like midgets! They have oddly shaped bodies and large heads with faces that do not look like children at all. The characters are so poorly drawn that one would have to wonder if it was intentional. Were the bad illustrations meant to evoke some sort of bizarre "old-fashioned" feel to the book? I sure hope not, since even old books have better illustrations than this.

The action is frequently stopped by excessive narrative and flashbacks. Constant flashbacks to earlier events in the kids' childhood are triggered by things that happen, but tend to bring the story to a grinding halt. This is especially bad when the flashback is not relevant to what's currently happening in the story. It almost feels like padding, along with the amount of detail put into little things such as the rituals of little Gnomblins and the little quirks of Robin Hood's gang. While such details could be interesting and help flesh the characters out, they are expanded upon in such a way that the flow of the story suffers.

It's a shame that so much could be so wrong with this book. The idea is pretty sound: three siblings end up getting sucked into a book that transports them into different adventures, each with a problem they are required to solve. There were even plot elements that I really liked too, such as when a mysterious man from the book steals the book to use it for his own ends. Unfortunately, all the bad buries the good and turns the whole thing into a painful, nearly unreadable mess.

If you happen to enjoy this book, more power to you. Though I have to wonder... are kids, or adults, its intended audience? Horrific illustrations, bad characterization and dialog, literary namedropping ("let's see what famous book I can reference next!"), mild swearing (!), and a narrative that frequently slows down and stops for no good reason, all have me wondering if this book was really intended for kids, or for adults who have a love of books and want to be brought back to them in some twisted misshapen attempt at nostalgia.