A Wizard Abroad (Young Wizards) [Library Binding]

Diane Duane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2008 | Series: Young Wizards

To give Nita a vacation from magic, Nita's parents pack her off for a month-long stay with her eccentric aunt in Ireland. But Ireland is even thicker with magical doings than the United States, and Nita soon finds herself and a host of Irish wizards battling creatures from a nightmare Ireland, one in which humankind is the stuff of tales and storybooks and where the legends and monsters of the country's mythology are a deadly reality.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8. Nita Callahan, a 14-year-old wizard from Long Island, is annoyed when her concerned parents ship her off to Ireland for six weeks on an enforced vacation from magic-working and her partner Kit?but what's time or space to wizards (see So You Want to Be a Wizard [1996] and its sequels [all Harcourt]). In any case, Ireland is hardly the ideal spot for a magic-free getaway, and indeed Nita soon finds herself involved in big doings. With the ancient harvest festival of Lughnasad approaching, signs point to a major attack from the malicious Lone Power, the very inventor of Death, in its guise as Balor of the Evil Eye. The assembled wizards of Ireland have but one hope: to find or re-create the Four Treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan, said in ancient stories to have helped defeat Balor once before. Moving easily between light, everyday language and the sonorous formality of high fantasy, Duane seamlessly interweaves encounters with creatures from legend with glimpses of modern Irish life and teen culture. Her view of magic's place in the scheme of things is so clever and well reasoned that readers will have no trouble suspending belief. Nita is an appealingly hot-tempered teenager who faces slavering dire wolves and trollish drows with more courage than the dismaying realization that she's gotten "the hots" for young fellow wizard Ronan. Balor's appearance in the climactic battle is all too brief, but against this army of wizards, it never stands a chance. At least in retrospect. An unusually consistent fantasy, rich in details, subplots, and Irish lore.?John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Grade 5-8. Nita Callahan, a 14-year-old wizard from Long Island, is annoyed when her concerned parents ship her off to Ireland for six weeks on an enforced vacation from magic-working and her partner Kit?but what's time or space to wizards (see So You Want to Be a Wizard [1996] and its sequels [all Harcourt]). In any case, Ireland is hardly the ideal spot for a magic-free getaway, and indeed Nita soon finds herself involved in big doings. With the ancient harvest festival of Lughnasad approaching, signs point to a major attack from the malicious Lone Power, the very inventor of Death, in its guise as Balor of the Evil Eye. The assembled wizards of Ireland have but one hope: to find or re-create the Four Treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan, said in ancient stories to have helped defeat Balor once before. Moving easily between light, everyday language and the sonorous formality of high fantasy, Duane seamlessly interweaves encounters with creatures from legend with glimpses of modern Irish life and teen culture. Her view of magic's place in the scheme of things is so clever and well reasoned that readers will have no trouble suspending belief. Nita is an appealingly hot-tempered teenager who faces slavering dire wolves and trollish drows with more courage than the dismaying realization that she's gotten "the hots" for young fellow wizard Ronan. Balor's appearance in the climactic battle is all too brief, but against this army of wizards, it never stands a chance. At least in retrospect. An unusually consistent fantasy, rich in details, subplots, and Irish lore. John Peters, New York Public Library (School Library Journal ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Library Binding: 355 pages
• Publisher: Paw Prints 2008-04-18 (April 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1435248546
• ISBN-13: 978-1435248540
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,417,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane Duane was born in New York City -- a descendant of New York's first mayor -- and worked there as a psychiatric nurse before leaving the profession for the only one she loved better, the business of writing. Since the publication of her first novel in 1981, she's written fifty more, not to mention numerous short stories, comics, computer games and screenplays for TV and film, and has picked up the occasional award here and there. (She has also worked with Star Trek in more media than anyone else alive.)

Right now she's probably best known for her "Young Wizards" series of young adult fantasy novels, featuring the New York-based wizards Kit Rodriguez and Nita Callahan -- in business for twenty-five years now, their most recent adventure being described in the ninth YW novel, "A Wizard of Mars" (just released in paperback).

DD shares a two hundred-year-old cottage in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland with her husband, the Belfast-born novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood, a laid-back white cat named Goodman, and various overworked computers... an odd but congenial environment for the staging of epic battles between good and evil and the leisurely pursuit of total galactic domination. (And a lot of ethnic cooking: her own favorite foods come from the cuisines of central Europe and the Mediterranean.) In her spare time she gardens (weeding, mostly), studies German and Italian, listens to shortwave and satellite radio, and dabbles in astronomy, computer graphics, iaido, amateur cartography, and desktop publishing ... while also trying to figure out how to make more spare time.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opinion of an avid reader, November 10, 2000

By 

"noelgirl" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Wizard Abroad: The Fourth Book in the Young Wizards Series (Hardcover)

I've read all of the Wizard series by Diane Duane, and this is definitely the best yet. According to Nita(Juanita)'s parents, she and and her wizardry partner, Kit (Christopher), have been spending way too much time together. Her parents just can't understand that there's NOTHING going on between them, just magic. Nonetheless, Juanita is packed up and sent to live with her aunt in Ireland for six weeks until school starts. Grudgingly, Nita settles in with her aunt, and even starts enjoying a little break from magic, but it's not too long until she realizes how much trouble Ireland is really in, and how one little shift of power in the wrong direction could destroy it. It's up to Nita, Kit, and a few new characters to gather the tools they need and re-enact an ancient battle, or accept their fates. The story is set with Duane's typical magic, melded together with Irish lore to make one of the most creative and thrilling fantasy books of today.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 13-year-old's opinion. . ., December 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Wizard Abroad (Young Wizards, Book 4) (Paperback)

Three words: I LOVED IT! This is definitely one of the best young adult type books around. One of my all-time favorite books (like the others in the series), A WIZARD ABROAD kept me captivated till the end (an I still want MORE!). With the addition of Dairine, Nita's younger sister, who is my favorite character (sorry, Nita or Kit fans), this and the book before it, HIGH WIZARDRY, are my favorites. Please, read this book! I've had many people turn it down, but those who take my advice are glad! They agree: A WIZARD ABROAD IS THE BEST! ( but read the others first! )

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The uneasy, uncomfortables sense of -- Power., July 4, 2005

By 

Akethan (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Wizard Abroad: The Fourth Book in the Young Wizards Series (Paperback)

Somewhere between Madeleine L'Engle and Judy Blume is where this book by Diane Duane fits in.

I hadn't paid attention to the fact that this was a 4th book in a series. I was caught by the cover and title and took it home with me. Despite plunging into #4 without any background on the series, it wasn't hard to pick up and follow - the story in this book stood on its own and didn't require a lot of 'flashback' referencing.

The writing is strong enough - and well-suited for the teenage crowd that Duane seems to be targeting. The magical adventures and lore is interspersed with teen angst and qualms, "Not important stuff, like kissing -- how do you do it and still breathe? Is not wearing a bra a come-on?"

Much more adult than the Harry Potter series, Duane goes right into battles with thick descriptions - and death in tow, not shying away from the facts of things. She also takes the time to tuck in the myth, history and lore that flush out the story.

A good read - I'll take the time sometime to go back to #1 and roll forward.

However - the writing here should steer readers to progress toward similarly crafted books by Alan Garner, Madeleine L'Engle, or Ursula K. LeGuin.