Just a quick reminder that voting for the Clive Staples Award – Readers’ Choice will continue through the end of August. If you haven’t voted yet, please do so (provided you’ve read at least two of the nominations), and remember to mention the Award voting during the tour (or not—it is voluntary ;-)
Clive Staples Award voting information
Clive Staples List of Nominations
My Favorites from C
hildhood:
Clive Staples Award voting information
Clive Staples List of Nominations
My Favorites from C
hildhood:All of Edward Eager's books- Half Magic, Seven Day Magic, Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle, The Time Garden, Magic or Not?, The Well-Wishers,
My favorite of Edward Eager's books is Magic by the Lake. The turtle is an unforgettable character.
Here are the summaries courtesy of wikipedia:
Half Magic
A dull summer is improved when Katharine, Mark, Jane and Martha find a magic talisman, which resembles a U.S. nickel. The catch is that the talisman only grants half of any wish made upon it--a wish to be on a desert island sends them to the Sahara desert, and their mother ends up halfway home when she wishes to return home during a dull visit to her relatives--which causes considerable confusion until the children learn to circumvent this by doubling their wishes
Magic by the Lake
Here are the further adventures of Martha, Jane, Mark, and Katharine from Half-Magic. Their summer vacation is enlivened by an entire magic lake, channelled through a talking, and somewhat grumpy, box turtle. They are stranded on a desert island, visit Ali-Baba's cave, and end up rescued by some children we see in the next book.
Half Magic and Magic by the Lake take place in the 1920s, earlier than Eager's other novels.
Knight's Castle
Martha's children, Roger and Ann, and their Aunt Katharine's children, Eliza and Jack, find that the combination of a toy castle, Scott's Ivanhoe, and a little magic can build another wonderful series of adventures. A running theme in Eager's novels is his many references to the novels of E. Nesbit; Knight's Castle pays explicit tribute to Nesbit's The Magic City, and also makes an explicit reference to the cartoons of Charles Addams. (Half Magic includes a reference to a short story by Saki.) Knight's Castle won Ohioana Book Award for Juvenile Literature in 1957.[21]
The Time Garden
Eliza, Jack, Roger, and Ann find an herb garden where thyme grows, which lets them travel through time (until the thyme is ripe). On one adventure they rescue their Aunt Jane, Uncle Mark and their mothers from an adventure they took as children. This gives an alternate view of one of the adventures in Magic by the Lake.
Magic or Not?
Laura, James, and their wonderful new neighbors, Kip and Lydia, wish up some summer adventures when the well in their new yard is more than they imagined.
Although all of Eager's other novels for children depict what are clearly adventures in supernatural magic, Magic or Not and its sequel The Well-Wishers are different in tone from his other books, because all of the "magical" events in these two novels are described ambiguously, with clues to permit possible non-supernatural explanations.
The Well-Wishers
The children return to the magic well from Magic or Not for another unpredictable series of adventures which might (or might not) be genuine magic.
Seven-Day Magic
Barnaby, John, Susan, Abbie and Fredericka check out a tattered book from the library for seven days. Oddly, it carefully and correctly records every word they say. Soon they find that it not only records events, but creates new magical adventures.
Seven-Day Magic is Eager's only stand-alone novel; it is the only one which features children who do not appear in at least one other of his books. It does, refer to Half Magic by name, and has a chapter where the children visit the very end of Half Magic and what might have happened afterwards. It was his last book.
Find out what the other bloggers recommend
A dull summer is improved when Katharine, Mark, Jane and Martha find a magic talisman, which resembles a U.S. nickel. The catch is that the talisman only grants half of any wish made upon it--a wish to be on a desert island sends them to the Sahara desert, and their mother ends up halfway home when she wishes to return home during a dull visit to her relatives--which causes considerable confusion until the children learn to circumvent this by doubling their wishes
Magic by the Lake
Here are the further adventures of Martha, Jane, Mark, and Katharine from Half-Magic. Their summer vacation is enlivened by an entire magic lake, channelled through a talking, and somewhat grumpy, box turtle. They are stranded on a desert island, visit Ali-Baba's cave, and end up rescued by some children we see in the next book.
Half Magic and Magic by the Lake take place in the 1920s, earlier than Eager's other novels.
Knight's Castle
Martha's children, Roger and Ann, and their Aunt Katharine's children, Eliza and Jack, find that the combination of a toy castle, Scott's Ivanhoe, and a little magic can build another wonderful series of adventures. A running theme in Eager's novels is his many references to the novels of E. Nesbit; Knight's Castle pays explicit tribute to Nesbit's The Magic City, and also makes an explicit reference to the cartoons of Charles Addams. (Half Magic includes a reference to a short story by Saki.) Knight's Castle won Ohioana Book Award for Juvenile Literature in 1957.[21]
The Time Garden
Eliza, Jack, Roger, and Ann find an herb garden where thyme grows, which lets them travel through time (until the thyme is ripe). On one adventure they rescue their Aunt Jane, Uncle Mark and their mothers from an adventure they took as children. This gives an alternate view of one of the adventures in Magic by the Lake.
Magic or Not?
Laura, James, and their wonderful new neighbors, Kip and Lydia, wish up some summer adventures when the well in their new yard is more than they imagined.
Although all of Eager's other novels for children depict what are clearly adventures in supernatural magic, Magic or Not and its sequel The Well-Wishers are different in tone from his other books, because all of the "magical" events in these two novels are described ambiguously, with clues to permit possible non-supernatural explanations.
The Well-Wishers
The children return to the magic well from Magic or Not for another unpredictable series of adventures which might (or might not) be genuine magic.
Seven-Day Magic
Barnaby, John, Susan, Abbie and Fredericka check out a tattered book from the library for seven days. Oddly, it carefully and correctly records every word they say. Soon they find that it not only records events, but creates new magical adventures.
Seven-Day Magic is Eager's only stand-alone novel; it is the only one which features children who do not appear in at least one other of his books. It does, refer to Half Magic by name, and has a chapter where the children visit the very end of Half Magic and what might have happened afterwards. It was his last book.
Find out what the other bloggers recommend
Participants’ links:
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
George Duncan
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Mike Lynch
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Jason Waguespac
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
George Duncan
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Mike Lynch
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Jason Waguespac
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher
Posts
5 comments:
Oh, I love Edward Eager! Such a creative author and so much fun to read.
Eager's books sound interesting. I don't remember finding those in our school library growing up. But, from your descriptions I would have enjoyed them.
Timothy
http://fantasythyme.blogspot.com
What a great idea to give your childhood favorites, Donita. Love it!
Fitting too because you just released your children's book, didn't you? I saw the cover at your web site. It looks really fun.
Becky
This sounds like a cool set of books. I'll have to check our local library to see if they carry them--for Maria! :D
I guess it's hard to narrow our favorites down to just one book. Thanks for letting us know about them.
Mike
Post a Comment