Customer Reviews

The Magic Meadow

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4 star:		(1)
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The Magic Meadow by Alexander Key taught me to believe that the power of the human mind can overcome physical handicaps and that friendship and love can conquer ills such as lonliness and abandonment. The story is about a ward of crippled children in a hospital doomed for demolition. The children have grown up together in that ward, and now face certain separation from one another. Then, one night, one of the children plays what he calls "the traveling game" and uses his mind to teleport himself to a beautiful place with warm sunshine, a meadow of wildflowers, and where he has no physical infirmity. When he returns to his hospital bed, the only proof of his experience is a small daisy clinging to his pajamas. With the help of a compassionate nurse, the children move their beds close together at night and link hands to take more "travelers." Learning where the children go, the dangers that lurk in an unknown time and place to these vulnerable kids makes it a difficult story to put down. The reader is left wondering if teleportation and time travel truly is possible, and if it is, how and where would you go? I highly recommend this story to both boys and girls ages 9 and up.

This book has affected me in the most incredible way. I read and reread this book all through school. It is simply the most magical, amazing book. Magic Meadow helped me believe that anything is possible and that friendship is an important and powerful force. I am haunted by images from this book and i am thankful for having read it at such a young age so many years ago.

I read this book several years ago, and then again, and then again, and then again.... I loved the ideas included, the suspense about what the children's fate would be (would they manage to escape to their secret location? Would all of them make it?), and the characters. The story has a sort of bittersweet joy at the end, perhaps because it both shows how much humans can screw up and what they could potentially reach. My only annoyance was at the end, which to me seemed to stop too suddenly and left readers hanging (I won't explain, for those who haven't read the book). Definitely recommended!

I remember reading this book during "Silent Reading" (remember that?) in second grade. I was so engrossed in the book that I remember looking up at the end and not being quite sure where I was. I couldn't figure out how I had gotten back to Miss Kalmbach's classroom from a place that seemed so real that I knew I was there. I found a copy of the book a couple years ago and read it with my son. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when my daughter is old enough to appreciate it too!

The ideas in this book makes you long for the "magic meadow" which Brick, Princess, Charlie Pill, Diz Dobie, and Mrs. Jackson find them magically transported to. A delight to read! You will read it over and over; and retain Alexander Key's vision.