Books for Ages 8-10: Some Wizard Books.

It’s almost Halloween, and that means it’s time for what? (pause) Okay, like ghosts, or skeletons, or witches, right?

 

There are a huge range of books about witches, wizards, and magic. The books are really different from one another, too. There are books about wizards and witches that are very serious, and have lots of brooding people and battles and death–like The Dark Is Rising, I Am Morgan Le Fey, The Chronicles of Narnia, the Young Merlin trilogy, or some of the later Harry Potter books. And then there are silly books and movies about wizards and witches, like Wizards of Waverly Place, Halloweentown, Which Witch? or The Worst Witch, where magic is still powerful, but the characters are funnier, and the plot has more to do with resolving conflicts between people and preventing wacky hijinks. Even if you just limit yourself to books about child witches and wizards, there’s a lot to sort through.

 

I’m here today to talk about two books about young magicians which I really like. They have some things in common. Both books take place in alternate dimensions, and involve travelling between worlds. Both involve a hero who has a lot of magical potential and who has the chance to come into a great deal of power. And both books mix silly hijinks–like using magic to smuggle a Goddess in another world funny books about schoolchildren, or diving into a swimming pool of chocolate pudding–with more serious subjects. Both books talk about the abuse of power, the importance of empathy and understanding, and the need for justice.

 

The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

Jones, Diana Wynne (1988). The Lives of Christopher Chant. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.

 

ISBN: 0688163653.

 

230 pages.

 

This book, originally published in 1988, predated Harry Potter, and also came before other books about wizards in school, like Jane Yolen’s good book Wizard’s Hall. It centers on a young boy whose rich enchanter parents mostly ignore him. Even though magic is common in his world and his parents have magic powers, Christopher doesn’t seem to have any magical powers at all–except for in his dreams. When he goes to bed, he travels each night through a valley between the worlds, and can emerge in lands with dragons or mermaids. But then Christopher discovers that his dreams are real–and he can bring things back from the other dimensions. His uncle Ralph immediately puts him to work smuggling mysterious (sometimes smelly) packages from other dimensions in what he calls “experiments.” When one of these experiments goes wrong and Christopher ends up with a spear through his chest, he makes a truly amazing discovery–he has nine lives. As one of only two nine-lived enchanters, Christopher has the chance to become Chrestomanci–the overseer of all magic in his world and others. The only problem is, Christopher doesn’t want to be Chrestomanci at all. And even if he did–his uncle Ralph still depends on him for his own plans.

 

This isn’t a typical high fantasy story. It includes a high-spirited Goddess from another dimension who loves books about British school life, a ring of criminals who are illegaly smuggling mermaid body parts, a cat named Throgmorten who has magical powers, a hero who dies constantly without thinking anything about it, and a lot of really interesting ideas about worlds which branch off from one another at different points of history and sit side by side, connected with magic.

 

Christopher, unlike Harry Potter or other protagonists who start out morally perfect and innocent, doesn’t begin the book as a very nice person. Spoiled and neglected, he isn’t used to connecting to other people, and has a hard time understanding how to talk to adults or other children. At the same time, he loves deeply and is able to learn sympathy for others. He develops quickly as the story goes on into someone who is strong, loyal, and has a lot of capacity to act quickly to protect his friends and become a real leader. In Jones’ subsequent exciting Chrestomanci chronicles, we see Christopher as an adult magician with enormous power who helps manage magic across many dimensions and deal with new enemies.

 

Wizardmatch by Lauren Magaziner

Magaziner, Lauren (2018). Wizardmatch. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.

 

ISBN: 9780735227781 .

 

295 pages.

 

This new novel by Lauren Magaziner has some things in common with Eva Ibbotson’s Which Witch, J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Wizards of Waverly Place. Essentially, it’s about wizard sports, friendship and family, betrayal, abuse of power, and forgiveness. The premise: super-powerful granddad wizard Pomporrompop (or something like that) , who lives in a castle made of food, is leaving all his powers and estate to the most powerful of his many, many grandchildren.

 

Here’s a passage:

 

Sparkles of light erupted in the entranceway, and at first Lennie could only see Poppop’s outline as he stood dramatically in the shadows. But then he pirouetted into the room and posed grandly, his staff held triumphantly in the air. Lennie stared at the long piece of wood with the rubber duck on top. It was amazing to think that one day she might get to hold the staff, and that it would amplify her powers, just like it did for Poppop. (Wizardmatch, p 52).

 

The protagonist, Lennie Mercado, is a 12 year old with invisibility powers who has grown up away from magic and who is determined to become the next great wizard in her family.  She travels with her mom and brother into the wizard dimension in order to get a chance at inheriting her grandfather’s magic staff. But then her grandpa says he won’t let Lennie even compete! Lennie is pretty sure her grandpa is making this decision because she is a girl, and after overhearing her granddad talking to her mom, she thinks the fact she’s half-Filipinx might have something to do with it too.

 

Bitter and fuming, Lennie stalks into the woods to try and run away, and runs into her great-uncle, who has been harboring a similar grudge against her grandfather since he was defeated fifty years ago and lost the opportunity to gain all the magical powers he might have had. He  promises to help Lennie become more powerful,, if she sabotages the competition.

This is a goofy book with pools of pudding, graveyards of goulash, and a cat named Fluffles who has a monocle. But it’s also original. It also effectively parodies all the wizard fiction out there that is dependent on a whimsical, powerful patriarch (like Dumbledore or Gandalf) who is always proven right in the end. In this book, none of the grown ups, and least of all the men, are in the right. It might be a silly little story, but I loved it, and am so excited to read more stuff in this vein.

YA Materials: Characters in When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

 

When Dimple Met Rishi is, by the author’s own admission, inspired by the Bollywood romances she grew up on and on romantic comedies like You’ve Got Mail. 

Menon, Sandhya (2017). When Dimple Met Rishi. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.

ISBN:978-1-4814-7868-7

374 pages.

Dimple Shah’s motivation when she goes to an app-development camp in the Bay Area is simple–to succeed with flying colors in her academic pursuits. She is initially outraged that her parents tried to set her up with Rishi Patel. Rishi, meanwhile, is a considerate, polite young man who has a secret passion for drawing comics, but has always done whatever his parents tell him. His character arc with Dimple centers around his admiration for the way she is able to love her parents while choosing to defy them. Dimple eventually is charmed by Rishi’s consideration for others and appreciates his artistic talent. Both discover they have been lonely, and find deep connection with each other.

Dimple’s roommate Celia and Rishi’s brother Ashish are involved in the plot at different times; both characters have their own colorful struggles with romance, sex  and frienships, but their issues are easily resolved before the end of the novel. 

Realistic conflicts between Dimple and her parents about tradition, marriage and feminism never erupt into serious rifts. Dimple’s gossipy mother is not in tune with Dimple’s career goals and is focused on her marriage prospects, but Dimple is emotionally close to both parents, and their ignorance of her does not cause her significant pain. Dimple’s father’s diabetes is in turn a motivating factor in the creation of Dimple’s app, which reminds users to take medication.

A central issue at the summer coding camp is the nepotism of the mega-rich. Middle-class Dimple is harassed at camp by a group she calls the “AberZombies.” Rich teens’ rudeness and racism are the target of socially aware, on-the-mark satirical jabs throughout the book. However, Dimple’s hyper-wealthy love interest, Rishi, is self-aware and has none of the negative qualities of other rich kids.

The socially-condoned, age-appropriate fling between a girl and boy from the middle and upper class and the same Hindu caste doesn’t break many barriers, though the lack of anxiety about social repercussions may make for refreshing reading.

Books for Ages 8-10: Notes from a Hairy-Not-Scary Werewolf by Tim Collins

Books for Ages 8-10: Notes from a Hairy-not-scary Werewolf

Tim Collins

2011. New York, NY: Aladdin.

ISBN 9781442482074

288 pages.

If you enjoy the goofy diary format of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but wish that the action was more intense and maybe involved more nighttime transformations, cannibalistic instincts, and consumption of raw meat, this book about monster puberty may be for you. Alternately, if you are between the ages of eight and twelve and have been keening for a book about monsters and death but your parents are concerned about your consumption of fictional violence, consider: this book is so thoroughly silly  that your parents are likely to find it appropriate and amusing, but it still has plenty of truly scary concepts and scenes that will whet your appetite for Halloween themes.

       Fourteen-year-old Luke Thorpe (a play by the author on the term lycanthrope, a word for werewolves) is by any account a totally insufferable dude. He’s a member of the debate society, is super smug about his grades, and way too enthusiastic about his job as hall monitor. He writes about what other kids do wrong every day in his journal. But that changes when he’s attacked by what seems to be a rabid dog. Suddenly, Luke starts feeling his spine pop and stretch into a tail in class, sees hair growing unpredictably from his knuckles, and feels a ravenous desire to eat roadkill or rip out throats when he is stressed or panicked. If you think this sounds like a metaphor for puberty, and all the things you learned or are learning in a mortifying sex ed class, you’re right–but that’s just the start.

       Luke is tapped to join a society of werewolves, run by Ryan, a slightly creepy, very buff twentysomething who Luke isn’t at all sure he can trust (especially when Ryan locks Luke up in his basement in order to scare him into transforming). Ryan tells Luke that he’s an alpha wolf, meaning he can transform at any time, not just the full moon. Even worse, Ryan wants Luke to help in the werewolf clan’s battle against some vampires that have stolen an island Ryan thinks belong to the wolves. In the meantime, Luke accompanies the pack as they run around in the night on full moons eating sheep. Luke doesn’t know if there’s a way out of his future as a delinquent mutton thief–until he meets another wolf who also distrusts Ryan, and they hatch a plan to try to stop the war. In the process, Luke learns a lot about how to communicate with people and be a little less obnoxious.

While there’s lots of slapstick (such as Luke getting scared at an amusement park and transforming on a roller coaster, popping out of his safety lock and sailing into the sky), there is also actual bloodshed in this book.  If you’re interested in books about werewolves, vampires and zombies that have a hint of the ridiculous about them (such as Darren Shan’s Cirque du Freak), then this nerdy ginger monster narrative may be something to check out.

Books for ages 8-10: A Storytelling of Ravens by Kyle Lukoff

A Storytelling of Ravens

Kyle Lukoff and Natalie Nelson

Groundwood Books, 2018.

32 pages.

Have you ever considered how macabre the phrase “a murder of crows” is, or asked if anyone else thought it was weird that people would call a group of fish a school? Sometimes, words for groups of animals make sense–for instance, a herd of geese makes sense because herd is also what you try to do to the geese as you avoid getting bitten. Other words for groups of animals are a lot more whimsical, and don’t seem as concerned with practicality. Sometime, a long time ago, probably when not very many people knew how to write, people who did know how to write developed things called collective nouns and said that these words were the official, proper way to describe groups of animals. A lot of times, these words are silly and poetic. In this book, Kyle Lukoff tries to imagine different scenarios that might make these official words make more sense. A smack of jellyfish, for example, make more sense if you imagine them smacking against the bottom of a glass-bottom boat, a memory of elephants must need to recall a peanut field–and what kind of story can you imagine behind the phrase a nuisance of cats? The different thoughtful short episodes in this very funny, kooky book are illustrated colorfully in papercuts and collage. Lukoff and Natalie Nelson make fun of the bizarre things the English language does and explore the rich storytelling we can put into the simplest of phrases if we try.

Books for Ages 8-10: Thisby Thestoop and the Black Mountain

Thisby Thestoop and the Black Mountain (2018)

by Zac Gorman ; illustrated by Sam Bosma

New York, NY: HarperCollins

ISBN: 978-0-06-249567-9

336 Pages 

This adventurous, cynical, darkly funny novel for ages 8-12 is full of monsters, classic high-fantasy royal power struggles, and epic battles—but its central focus is on the productive friendship between two capable girls.

Thisby Thestoop, twelve-year-old janitor in the Black Mountain underground monster dungeon, was abandoned on the stoop of the cavernous prison when she was a baby. Since then, she’s grown into a tough, no-nonsense moderator and maintenance expert who keeps the terrifying occupants of the Black Mountain alive while ensuring that everything stays in its proper place. Her world is turned upside down when the Crown Princess Iphigenia and her brother show up to conduct an inspection of the Mountain. When an overzealous tour guide uncharacteristically loses control of a monster and the Prince goes missing, Thisby finds herself responsible for saving Iphigenia and locating the lost royal before the kingdom falls into chaos. 

Snappy dialogue, ironic remarks about magic users, a breakneck pace and a snarky talking slime evoke earlier works like Diana Wynne Jones, while the quirky cast of characters with a range of bad intentions will remind older readers of The Princess Bride. The gruesome details of monster dietary practices, excess of slimes and other noxious foul things, and arm-slicingly vivid action scenes will enchant all young adventure lovers. Meanwhile, the central character’s consistent practical, curious nature, note-taking tomboy affect and infinite backpack pockets will appeal to readers who related hard to Harriet The Spy. Zac Gorman and Sam Bosma, both with a background in writing comics and children’s cartoons, have an instinct for pacing, vivid imagery, and clever, counterintuitive worldbuilding that holds the reader’s attention from beginning to end.