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Summary
Summary
It's my sister's seventh birthday. Entertainer calls in sick. Poor Louise is brokenhearted. Better find a backup quick! When Maxwell the Magician entertains at Louise's birthday party, the birthday girl is turned into a rock, her father into a broom, and the guests into animals. It takes Max's young nephew, Alex, to save the day! Kids will laugh at the mixed-up magic and root for Alex to set things straight at this unforgettable birthday party.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Magic run amok plagues Louise's seventh birthday party as a substitute magician turns the birthday girl into a rock. Each subsequent word or gesture creates a catastrophic transformation of someone else. Ashman's quatrains include the exclamations of the guests and superbly accelerate the action; the final, suspenseful words on each page prepare readers for the newest calamity. Dunnick reveals Maxwell's disastrous magic with watercolor-and-pen cartoon drawings that highlight the fast-moving action and the humor of the performer's mistakes. The transformations retain some characteristics of the guests, such as identifiable party hats and clothes. Simple lines and a tiny dot of a pupil convey expression in the faces of the large-headed characters who run and fly across the pages. A funny read-aloud for any collection.-Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A bumbling magician named Maxwell wreaks havoc when he steps in at the last minute to entertain at Louise's birthday party. The disaster unfolds in a series of witty, staccato quatrains: "Party starts. Magician enters./ Hocus pocus! What a shock!/ Stumbles through his incantation.../ Turns Louise into a rock." In short order various guests are transformed into a bird, a cat, a pig and so on. Louise's furious father demands a quick fix, but ends up a broom ("I can tell my father's angry./ For a broom, he looks quite mean./ He is sweeping like a demon./ Never seen the floor so clean"). After the hapless Max accidentally conjures up a marching band, he throws in the towel and calls in his young nephew to set things right. The brisk, upbeat tempo of Ashman's (Castles, Caves, and Honeycombs) clever verses enhances the farcical tone of the proceedings. First-time illustrator Dunnick, meanwhile, matches the pace with boisterous cartoons, all bustle and panic. The expressions of his droll, bug-eyed characters range from deadpan to quizzical to alarmed, and many of the set pieces have a goofy gleefulness, as when the surprised-looking guests are suddenly restored to their original forms, the father still propped against a door and a girl crouched atop a bookcase. Frothy fun. Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) ""Party starts. Magician enters. / Hocus pocus! What a shock! / Stumbles through his incantation... / Turns Louise into a rock."" And after that introduction, Maxwell the Magician-a last-minute replacement entertainer at Louise's birthday party-continues to miscast one transforming spell after another. Louise's brother, the story's unnamed narrator, offers a rollicking, play-by-play description of the ensuing pandemonium. The kids love it, Louise's parents are frantic, and Maxwell seems oddly unaffected. At the height of the insanity, a bird, a cat, and a pig (three enchanted partygoers), as well as a very angry broom (a.k.a. Dad) and a marching band (from who knows where) run wild; while ""in the midst of all this chaos / Sits the birthday rock, Louise."" Page turns are used to great effect, adding suspense and ratcheting up the hilarity. The fast-paced, rhyming text deserves to be read aloud and is well matched by Dunnick's mixed-media illustrations, featuring wide-eyed characters with large, potato-shaped heads and sturdy bodies (except, of course, for Dad the broom). Lots of white space helps focus on the central action, but there are plenty of details to engage listeners during subsequent readings. Though some may find the resolution of the birthday rock's predicament a bit facile, kids will cheer the arrival of Maxwell's competent young nephew Alex, who reverses the spells and saves the day. Steig's Sylvester and the Magic Pebble may be more poignant a tale, but the birthday rock, with her polka-dot party hat, brings her own quiet dignity to this riotous adventure. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Ages 4-8. The magician-entertainer at Louise's birthday party doesn't quite know how to do his tricks. He transforms Louise into a rock, her brother into a bird, and Dad into an angry broom. After turning a guest into a pig, he tries to divert the pig from the birthday cake by conjuring up a 10-piece marching band. Finally, the magician realizes he's messed up and calls in an expert, his young nephew, Alex, who manages to put everything back to normal. Well, almost everything. The playful, rhyming text and cartoon-style illustrations capture the farce of a party out of control. Any kid who's ever wondered, "What if?" at a magic show will enjoy the fun, especially since it's the adult who needs help here: the child knows it all. --Hazel Rochman