Publication Date: July 1, 2007 | Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up | Series: Sister Magic (Book 1)
Bestselling Amazing Days of Abby Hayes author Anne Mazer reaches out to younger readers with this magical take on sibling rivalry.
8-year-old Mabel likes her room to be neat, her day to be planned, and her life to be organized. If only she could organize her younger sister! 5-year-old Violet is messy and out of control. Just before Violet starts kindergarten, a surprise visit from mysterious Uncle Vartan exposes a big secret; there's magic in their family. Mable is sure she'll know just how to use her powers. After all, she's used to being mature and responsible. But her orderly world begins to fall apart when she learns she's not the one with magic -- it's adorable, annoying Violet. Life will never be the same!
Living with a little sister is never easy, especially if you are organized and responsible while your sister sports tangerine high-tops and a head full of jam. Mabel, the utterly tidy sister, generally tolerates Violet, but life gets harder after mysterious Uncle Vartan sends them a book of fairy tales. Soon after, strange things happen: shoelaces spontaneously untie, and their mother's wallet materializes in the freezer. Mabel's sleuthing unearths a family secret that heightens the sisters' tension, and what begins as a straightforward sibling story morphs into a tale with magical elements. While both sisters are broadly drawn, the story is fun and the embarrassment Mabel feels over Violet's behavior rings true. Short chapters and a mix of full-page and embedded black-and-white illustrations make the text accessible for children reading beginning chapter books. The first of a planned series, this will appeal to readers looking for a magical Judy Moody. Harold, Suzanne
Quite a lot of Anne Mazer's writing education took place while she was unconscious. Her parents wanted desperately to become writers and made themselves get up at 4:00 a.m. Every morning in order to have writing time before their three young children awoke. The first thing Anne heard every day was two big, noisy electric typewriters. The furious sound of typing was her childhood wake-up music. During the day, her parents endlessly discussed ideas, plot, and character, and before she was seven years old, Anne knew about revisions, first and second drafts, and rejection slips. It was like growing up in a twenty four hour, seven day a week writer's boot camp.
In order to escape from her parents' obsession with writing, Anne turned to books. She was an avid reader from an early age and credits her love of reading for her writing career. Her favorite works were fantasy, fairy tales, historical fiction, humor, realistic fiction, and adventure. Her other interests were language, art, history, and science. At the age of twelve, she wanted to be an actress, a ballerina and a nuclear physicist. These careers were rapidly eliminated as she realized that a) she couldn't dance, b) she couldn't act; and c) she hated math.
Although at the time Anne thought writing was nothing but a nuisance, she now considers herself very lucky to have grown up with two aspiring writers. She learned a lot about discipline, perseverance and dedication to a craft from witnessing her parents' struggle. They eventually became successful and award-winning young adult novelists.
It took Anne a long time to figure out that she, too, wanted to be a writer. During early adulthood, she worked as an au pair, a bank teller, a pill bottle labeler, a receptionist, an English tutor, and an administrative assistant, as well as other jobs that she was ill-suited for. She attended three universities, spent several years in Paris, traveled throughout Europe, and worked in Boston and New York City.
Anne's "eureka" moment about writing came while she prepared a research report for one of her bosses. As she lovingly polished each sentence, and meticulously organized the paragraphs, she realized that no one really cared how beautifully she wrote about the latest models of air-conditioners. Except her, of course.
Using her parents' model of daily writing and discipline, she began to write. It took her seven years to publish her first book, a picture book inspired by her then two year old son, Max.
Anne is the mother of an adult son and daughter. Over the last twenty years, she has written over forty-five books for young readers. She has enough ideas to last for another quarter century and hopes that she will be writing for a very long time.
Fun Facts About Anne Mazer
* Her favorite foods are popcorn, rice pudding and blueberries. * When she was a kid, she would sometimes read up to ten books a day. * If she had magic powers, she'd choose invisibility. * She painted the rooms in her house yellow, orange, and violet. * One of her favorite childhood books was The Twilight of Magic, by Hugh Lofting. * When Anne was a teenager, her room was so messy that she needed a map to get from the door to the bed. (sort of) * In school Anne often flunked her favorite creative subjects, like writing and art.
This review is from: Trouble With Violet (Sister Magic) (Paperback)
The first in this paperback series delivers what's expected: Older sister Mabel (8 years old, neat and tidy, organized and dependable) often has a hard time dealing with younger sister Violet (5 years old, messy, with her head in the clouds). Mabel is predictable, Violet is spontaneous. Mabel is helpful and Violet is lovable. While Mabel deals with frustration and jealousy over Violet's antics, another conflict surfaces. The arrival of a present from the girls' Uncle Vartan, a beautiful book of fairy tales, precedes the arrival of Uncle Vartan himself, a man neither girl has ever met. While Mabel loves spending time with her uncle, even she has to admit there is something weird about him. Her mother finally confesses: Vartan has Magic, and she's worried one of her daughters has it too. While Mabel dreams of what it would be like to have magic, readers will guess the conclusion before she does. Mabels of the world will feel for the character as she struggles to keep up with her sister, and fans of Violet types will enjoy. Good beginning to a promising series.
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4.0 out of 5 starsKid's review: A very good book, January 2, 2010
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Trouble With Violet (Sister Magic) (Paperback)
This is a very good book for a child 7-9. It has so much detail that I could barely take my eyes off the pages. I was always wondering what would happen next. There are so many cliffhangers. I felt like I was actually with Mabel and Violet. Reading this book is not what you have to do but what you want to do.
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