Somehow I missed Edward Eager in my childhood sprint through classic fantasy. There are some dated elements, but nothing that endangers the story or would make me hesitate to give it a child today.

A fun and silly romp about children and magic, very much indebted to Edith Nesbit.

Magic Books

Next: 'Magic by the Lake' ( )

Review from my daughter, age 9.
“I liked Half-Magic. I don’t think it’s a good read aloud but good to read yourself. It has an interesting plot twist. If you like magic, funniness, or unusual things that happen you’ll like Half-Magic.” ( )

Back when I was a kid, I read Seven-Day Magic without knowing at the time that the classic children's fantasy tale was part of a series. So, I've finally taken the chance to see where these Tales of Magic begin in the first book.

As expected, I got quite a kick out of this old-fashioned, quirky, humorous adventure. It's got lessons wrapped inside for the characters and such a poignant ending that echoes with unknown, further possibilities.

Yet, I appreciate aspects of the story and feel a little iffy about other aspects now in ways that my eight- or nine-year-old mind wouldn't have if I'd read this book back then... ( )

http://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/eagere-halfmagic/eagere-halfmagic-00-h.html

I read this book as a kid because my parents had read this book as a kid (it would have just been released for them). Some of the parts really stuck with me and I remember hunting down the rest of the series and enjoying most of them. Rereading them now as an adult the book is a lot shorter than I remember and of course it reads like a book written in the 50s about life in the 20s because that's exactly what it is. I feel almost like it's going back three generations and that's pretty wild.

These children are of course fictional children written by an adult ... so they are very well-read. They drop lots of references to fictional characters or real people or real publications that just sailed right over my head when I read this before. Now with the power of the Internet they are just a quick Googling away. I wonder if parents reading this book aloud to their children in the 50s got a laugh seeing these things in print. Even as a child I was savvy enough to catch the biggest name-drop in the book which was the multiple references to the books by E Nesbit, and I know that when I finished this series her books were the next ones to be checked out. ( )

This is a childhood favorite and while I still found the story funny and inventive and the writing charming, I also noticed a lot more of its flaws. Like the racism, aaand the sexism. I know its a product of its time, but still. :/

There is a great full cast audio version of this book as well that is well worth checking out. ( )