The Wizard [Hardcover]

Jack Prelutsky (Author), Brandon Dorman (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

The wizard, watchful, waits alone within his tower of cold gray stone and ponders in his wicked way what evil deeds he'll do this day.

What do you think the wizard is planning to do? Conjure a magic spell? Turn a frog into a flea? Fill a cauldron with bubbling brew?

You may think you know . . . but watch out. Because if the wizard is bored, he may come looking for you!

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On a seemingly normal suburban cul-de-sac, one house is definitely out of character—the looming tower that's home to the title character. Dressed in a green robe and peaked hat decorated with stars and moons, He's tall and thin with wrinkled skin, writes Prelutsky, a tangled beard hangs from his chin. (The verse originally appeared in the 1976 collection Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep.) As he ponders in his wicked way/ what evil deed he'll do this day, the wizard decides to gives his powers a workout on a hapless frog. The poor amphibian is transformed into a flea, a pair of mice, a cockatoo, a piece of chalk and silver bell before being returned to his original shape. Mightily pleased with himself, the wizard gazes down upon the children playing in the street below and debates his next move: He may pluck someone off the spot/ and turn him into... who knows what? The poem isn't one of Prelutsky's most memorable works, but it is pretext enough for an impressive picture book by Dorman. The illustrator's digital artwork has all the burnished lushness and radiance of oil paintings. Whether immersing readers in the delicious gloominess of the wizard's workroom or zooming in for a close-up of the enchanter's knobby fingers and menacing nails, Dorman proves his mettle as a marvelous visual storyteller. Ages 5-10. (July)
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From Booklist

In a spooky tower on a cozy suburban cul-de-sac lives a wizard pondering evil deeds. He uses "elemental sorcery" to turn a bullfrog into a flea, which becomes a pair of mice, which emerge as a cockatoo, and so on, until the wizard brings back the frog and banishes it. Contemplating his next trick, the magician peers from his tower window to the street below, where children play: "He may pluck someone off the spot / and turn them into . . . who knows what?" Prelutsky's rhyming text, adapted from a poem originally published in Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976), combines well with Dorman's sumptuous, full-page digital art, featuring a grandfatherly wizard "tall and thin with wrinkled skin, a tangled beard hangs from his chin." Children will particularly like the way the wizard's spells glow and splash across the pages, and the creepy feeling that evil may lurk even on their own street. Consider this somewhat eerie, but not over-the-top scary. Enos, Randall

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (June 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061240761
• ISBN-13: 978-0061240768
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 11.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,260,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jack Prelutsky has filled more than fifty books of verse with his inventive wordplay, including the national bestsellers The Wizard, Scranimals, and The New Kid on the Block. He is also the author of Be Glad Your Nose is on your Face, a collection of his most celebrated verses. He was named the nation's first Children's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. Jack Prelutsky lives in Washington State.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Wiz, September 3, 2007

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wizard (Hardcover)

It seems like such an obvious notion that I'm more than a little shocked that other publishers haven't dived into the idea first. Step One: Locate a book of children's poetry. Say, Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, by Jack Prelutsky (circa 1976). Step Two: Say to the author of the poetry (if that person still happens to be alive, of course), "Gee whiz. Wouldn't it be great if we made that old poem of yours, `The Wizard', into its own picture book?" Acquire permission to do so. Step Three: Find an up-and-coming illustrator. Someone you've worked with before who you're fairly certain will end up the Next Big Thing. Step Four: Observe your clever idea hitting the New York Times bestseller list and smile at how logical and easy this entire process was. Is this simplifying things a bit? Yup. But when I saw "The Wizard" by Jack Prelutsky in its full glory I realized just how ripe the market is for this kind of poetry picture book. Douglas Florian and various Shel Silverstein heirs may wish to consider the advantages to this kind of artistry. Add in current Greenwillow baby Brandon Dorman and you've got yourself a book that's primed to win more than a few fans ASAP.

From the benign fellow on the cover you might think that this was a cheery tale of your average everyday wizardy fellow. Not so. As we learn right from the start, "The wizard, watchful, waits alone / within his tower of cold gray stone / and ponders in his wicked way / what evil deeds he'll do this day." Down below sits a happy little cluster of houses, while up in the nearby tower the wizard turns his attention to a frog. He changes it into a pair of mice, a cockatoo, a small cockatoo, chalk, a silver bell, and then finally a frog again. Then, just when the poor thing is about to escape, the frog is at last turned into a cloud of thick smoke. Now fully amused, the wizard takes note of the kids down below and we are warned, "Should you encounter a toad or a lizard / look closely ... it may be the work of a wizard." A telltale chameleon sitting on a skateboard suggests as much.

We're at the point right now where CGI needs to figure out where it wants to go. Is there any reason to create art on a computer when it just ends up looking like paint on a canvas? Maybe so, if the result is as natural and enticing as that of Brandon Dorman. I seriously doubt that anyone who picked up this book on a whim would leap to the conclusion that it was done entirely digitally. Indeed, there's been a lot of care taken with these images. The two-page spread I was particularly fond of involved the moment when the Wizard changed a cockatoo into a section of chalk. A rainbow-swirled piece sits neatly on some stone as the old man's cracked and blackened fingernails delicately reach to pick it up. Taking into consideration Dorman's eye for light, textures, and details, this is wizardry of an entirely different sort.

Dorman's Wizard is an odd fellow. Prelutsky makes it pretty clear right from the start that he's a nasty nut. But though a supposedly "tangled beard hangs from his chin," Dorman chooses to go the Gandalf/Dumbledore route at first and give his wizard a smooth almost creamy kind of facial hair. Vanilla pudding wouldn't be a bad description. Basically, the Wizard starts out looking like a nice guy, somewhat at odds with the writing. Only as the story continues do we notice how gnarled and gross his long fingernailed hands are. Yet as he turns a frog into a variety of objects and creatures, the man's features begin to harden. By the time he stands in front of the window observing the now returned frog sitting on his fingertips, his eyes are definitely cold and his smile cruel. The end leaves you with few doubts as to what the villain's next move will be. The text lacks the bone-chilling warnings of such poets as Shel Silverstein (I am still convinced that the gypsies will be after me any day now) but it's strong enough to stand alone in this new set of packaging.

I enjoyed the at odds setting of the story too. Dorman places his action at the end of a suburban cul-de-sac. The title page shows your average everyday houses, ending in a ramshackle skeleton of a hut with a tall stone tower just behind. It makes you wonder how the Wizard got his zoning permits. I like to think his tower was around first and suburbia grew up around him. That would certainly explain the dislike he has taken to the children that play in the street below him. And then other details begin to pull at your eyes the more you read. Why are there slash marks on the Wizard's walls? Did he create those or were they done by something he's holding prisoner? They seem important, if only because they're on the book's endpapers. And why are there pushpins connected by yarn on the large globe in his home? Is this to show how the Wizard can appear anywhere so watch out little children?

Leading kids to fun poetry books can feel like leading calves to the slaughter if it's done poorly. Consider pairing this book with Adam Rex's, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich for a truly original, colorful, kid-friendly exercise in modern poetic storytelling. This title is sure to have a built-in following of kids either too young for Harry Potter or just beginning him. With its rich deep colors, surprising artistry, and fun rhymes and story, the pairing of Prelutsky and Dorman feels almost natural. Like a partnership that's had time to build and grow. For anyone looking for some new additions to their poetry shelves, consider this combination of the new and the old a dynamic, collectable pairing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Toadally cool wizard, August 6, 2007

By 

B. Tack "bjtack" (Conneaut, OHIO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wizard (Hardcover)

I don't know what book the other person read but this book is not about a wizard turning kids into toads.

The wizard takes a toad and turns him into other things. All the author says in the end is the next time you see a toad or lizard look carefully you never know what you might see.

The wizard does change the poor toad into many things but he eventually turns him back into a toad.

Besides it is by Jack Prelutsky. The art work by Brandon Dorman is just beautiful.
Barb - Ohio

1.0 out of 5 stars Creepy and makes wizards seem evil, not a fun kids book, October 5, 2010

By 

M. Baker (Phx, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wizard (Hardcover)

This books is quite honestly horrible. The illustrations are great but the text is nasty, upsetting to kids reared in a time in which Harry and his buds are family friends. It is not the poets fault, who wrote it 30 years ago, but rather the publisher who should have just hired someone to write a decent little story about a wizard that inspires rather than ends with the freaky implied message that the evil wizard is going to kidnap some kid and turn him into a what?

It is no wonder that the book is on the sale rack. Do not bother.