"Fresh and funny now as the day it was written"
Francesca Simon, Guest Editor February 2021: "I was 9 or 10 when I discovered Edward Eager’s fantastic books about a group of children’s magic adventures. Squabbling siblings Katharine, Jane, Mark and Martha pick up a coin on the way to the library. They think it’s an ordinary nickle, but gradually discover that it’s a magic coin. The catch is it only grants half your wish. I was so intrigued by the idea of magic’s wilfullness: that magic got fed up, that magic wasn’t controllable, that magic happened or it didn’t. The books enthralled me. The children were unlike story-book children: they fought and argued, their widowed mother had big money troubles, they were bookish and imaginative. If magic could happen to them, an ordinary family, it could happen to anyone. Perhaps even to me."
| Suitable For: |
It all begins with a strange coin on a sun-warmed sidewalk. Jane finds the coin, and because she and her siblings are having the worst, most dreadfully boring summer ever, she idly wishes something exciting would happen. And something does: Her wish is granted. Or not quite. Only half of her wish comes true. It turns out the coin grants wishes-but only by half, so that you must wish for twice as much as you want. Wishing for two times some things is a cinch, but other doubled wishes only cause twice as much trouble. What is half of twice a talking cat? Or to be half-again twice not-here? And how do you double your most heartfelt wish, the one you care about so much it has to be perfect?
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Half Magic and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-10 years old
Half Magic features in the following genres: Featured Books for 9+ readers, Recommendations
Half Magic is available in Paperback, Audiobook
Half Magic was written by Edward Eager and published by Clarion Books an imprint of HMH Books
Half Magic has 224 pages
Yes it is part of Tales of Magic series