The Magic Pudding (New York Review Children's Collection) [Hardcover]

Norman Lindsay (Illustrator), Philip Pullman (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: June 30, 2004 | Age Range: 9 and up | Series: New York Review Children's Collection

The Magic Pudding is a pie, except when it's something else, like a steak, or a jam donut, or an apple dumpling, or whatever its owner wants it to be. And it never runs out. No matter how many slices you cut, there's always something left over. It's magic.

But the Magic Pudding is also alive. It walks and it talks and it's got a personality like no other. A meaner, sulkier, snider, snarlinger Pudding you've never met.

So Bunyip Bluegum (the koala bear) finds out when he joins Barnacle Bill (the sailor) and Sam Sawnoff (the penguin bold) as members of the Noble Society of Pudding Owners, whose "members are required to wander along the roads, indulgin' in conversation, song and story, and eatin' at regular intervals from the Pudding." Wild and woolly, funny and outrageously fun, The Magic Pudding stands somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and The Stinky Cheese Man as one of the craziest books ever written for young readers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The illustrations are great fun, the characters burst into comic verse at the drop of a hat...hard to resist." -- The Horn Book Magazine

"Without question my favorite children's book." -- Philip Pullman

From the Inside Flap

"This is the funniest children’s book ever written. I’ve been laughing at it for fifty years, and when I read it again this morning, I laughed just as much as I ever did. There’s no point in trying to explain why it’s funny. If there’s anyone so bereft of humour that they can read these words and look at these pictures without laughing, then heaven help them, because they’re beyond the reach of advice, instruction or despair." --Philip Pullman, from the introduction

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 184 pages
• Publisher: NYR Children's Collection (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590171012
• ISBN-13: 978-1590171011
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Australian Lewis Carroll? September 27, 2004

By bensmomma VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

This book is part of the wonderful new series of republished children's books from the New York Review of Books. Over 80 years old, "The Magic Pudding" describes the adventures of a koala bear, named Bunyip Bluegum - the kind of koala who wears a high collar and spats - who falls in with a crazy cowboy sort of fellow named Bill Barnacle and a penguin named Sam Sawnoff.

Bill and Sam are possessed of a magic pudding (named Albert, if you can believe this), who regenerates every time you take a bite of him and changes into whatever flavor you like. Albert the pudding is much coveted by two evil villains who are constantly tricking our Heroes into giving up the Pudding, whereupon they must go and re-re-re-rescue it.

The characters and style are very reminiscent of "Alice in Wonderland," with Bunyip seeming a little White-rabbitish to me, and Bill and Sam sort of Mad Hatter and Dormouse-y. The effect is somewhere in between "Alice" and an old Loony Tunes in which Bugs Bunny constantly bewilders Elmer Fudd.

The whole narrative is punctuated with many whimsical song lyrics, like the poetry in Carroll's book. The lyrics make it a great read-aloud for the younger set, although older kids might be a bit puzzled by its style. However, everyone will be charmed by the Pudding himself and want one of their very own.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A magically funny story December 23, 2003

By L O'connor

Format:Paperback

Bunyip Bluegum the Koala leaves home because he can't stand the sight of his uncle's whiskers in the soup any more. He meets Barnacle Bill the sailor and Sam Sawnoff the penguin, who own a remarkable pudding. Every time you cut a slice from the pudding, another one grows in its place, you can eat as much as you like, the pudding lasts forever. What's more, you can change the pudding to any kind you like, it can be steak and kidney or plum duff or jam roly poly. The pudding is apt to get discontented and starts complaining if it isn't eaten enough. Such a desirable pudding is naturally at constant risk from pudding thieves, and the three friends have their work cut out trying to outwit the sneaky Possum and Wombat who are always trying to steal it. This is a very funny story with lots of action and a great many fights, it should appeal to anyone who likes humorous fantasy.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Short, Sweet, and an Overall Great Choice! November 18, 2002

By Harry Eskin

Format:Hardcover

I first discovered "The Magic Pudding" when I was in fourth grade. I found it amid a bunch of books given to me by my grandparents. I read it for a school free choice reading project, and since then I must have re-read it over 10 times. It is just a phenomenal book. It has none of that "Harry Potter" commercialism and is 30 times better to boot. It is whimsical, fantastical, funny, exhilarating, and overall joyful to read. It is a short book - I had my friend read it on a short plane flight, and he loved it - but it is absolutely amazing.