The Bottom Line: This book will take you and your children to a magical place right here in your own back yard. I'd recommend this to everyone. Give it a chance!
angelet's Full Review: Diane Duane - So You Want to Be a Wizard
History:
When I was 12 my dad received books in a book club. One day he brought me the latest book, thinking that I might be more interested in it than he would. It was called Support Your Local Wizard. I was interested so I accepted. I'd always liked the idea of magic so this sounded like fun. The book was thick, but I discovered it was three books in one as book club editions often are. This held the first three books of Diane Duane's Young Wizard series. At the time they were the only ones in the series, but since then she has written three more and probably won't stop there. The first three books are So You Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, and High Wizardry. This review is of course on the first book.
Plot and Characters:
I started the book right then and there, sitting in the back seat of the car while my parents ran errands. The book started at a dead run. Literally. We meet our heroin, Nita as she's running from some bullies. The girls chase her through several streets of her suburban New York town. She takes refuge in the local library where she reminisces in the children's section over many books that kept her company during her young childhood. (This caught me right off the bat, as it reminded me a lot of myself.) Of course at age 13 it hadn't been too terribly long ago in her lifetime that she had read these books, but long enough. Running her hand down the isle, a book snagged her finger. She pulled the book out and read the cover. So You Want to Be a Wizard. Like those So You Want to Be... a Doctor or Lawyer or Construction Worker or whatever, but this said Wizard. Intrigued and confused, she sat down to read. What she found changed her life. Mind you all this is just the first couple of pages. From here on in we follow Nita as she starts her life as a wizard after saying the magic oath from the book. The oath is absolutely lovely and of course I memorized it and still recite it to this day.
Nita meets her magic partner a little while later in the book. His name is Kit and together they find themselves on their wizardly initiation called the Ordeal. This takes them to another dimension and on a mission to save the Universe form the Lone Power who is one of great evil. Along the way they meet Fred, a white hole who looks like a spark of light, but can "eat" objects and emit x-rays which he does on occasion when excited. Of course Nita and Kit try to ask him not to do this, but sometimes it slips out. He also gets a case of the hiccups, causing him to emit objects and the humor of what suddenly appears from his little problem is a lot of fun.
The other dimension our characters find themselves in is fascinating with no human occupants, but rather evil creatures such as taxi's that try to eat you or killer helicopters. Note that these aren't really very scary, but more of an imaginative addition to the book that Diane Duane adds and it helps give the characters something to work with. Don't worry about your kids getting scared by reading about these things. Other aspects of the alternate dimension are just very involving and will capture young minds and their imaginations if just given half a chance. I'm still surprised these never made it to a place that they deserve amongst other great literature.
Our heroes gain a lot of fun abilities with their magic and the unique talents to understand animals when they talk. Nita grows an affinity to plants and has great conversations with a tree in her backyard while Kit starts talking to cars and trains. The finesse by which magic works in these books is one of my favorite parts. In the Harry Potter novels the magic seems very artificial, you do a spell and something happens. Sure the same thing goes in this world, but here there's more of a need to talk to whatever you are trying to change to ask it to change, rather than telling it to. You can't just make a hole appear in a glass pane, you have to ask it to relax and let go of its current need to stick together. Remind it of how nice it was when it was just sand and didn't have to stay in any one place all the time. It's a nice way to use the magic and give respect to objects and creatures rather than forcing your will upon everything.
Overall:
Now the book is definitely written for young readers, but I think readers of any age would enjoy these novels and many other works of hers. This book will captivate readers of any age and it's not just light hearted fun and games. There's real drama and real things to learn, but there's no blatant moral pushed in your face. I would recommend this to anyone with children that enjoy fantasy novels, as well as adults of course.
What didn't I like?
I could never find anything in the novels written by Diane Duane that I didn't enjoy. My only complaint is that she isn't as prolific as other authors such as Piers Anthony and several of her books go out of print too quickly. I sure hope to see more of her work soon and I hope you give her a chance. :)
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