Magic Spell

by Julie Paschkis, Julie Paschkis (Illustrator)

Overview

Award-winning author and illustrator Julie Paschkis casts a spell to transform word play into an entertaining and hilarious picture book that’s perfect for reading aloud.

With his trusty assistant, Zaza, by his side, magician the Great Aziz can turn
a dish into a fish,
a rose into a hose,
and a wire into a fire.
But when Aziz turns Zaza’s
wig into a pig—
well, he’s gone too far!

This beautifully illustrated picture book by critically acclaimed author and illustrator Julie Paschkis will have readers laughing out loud at this very silly story, all while learning very basic lessons about word play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481422109
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Julie Paschkis is a painter, textile designer, and award-winning illustrator and author of many books for children, including Vivid: Poems and Notes about Color; Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, an Américas Award winner and an Orbis Pictus Honor book; Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet S. Wong, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman; and Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary by Julie Larios, a Boston Globe–Horn Award Honor Book. She lives in Seattle with her husband. Visit her at JuliePaschkis.com.

Julie Paschkis is a painter, textile designer, and award-winning illustrator and author of many books for children, including Vivid: Poems and Notes about Color; Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, an Américas Award winner and an Orbis Pictus Honor book; Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet S. Wong, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman; and Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary by Julie Larios, a Boston Globe–Horn Award Honor Book. She lives in Seattle with her husband. Visit her at JuliePaschkis.com.

Editorial Reviews

"The magic show is a conducive backdrop for using words that otherwise would take Seussical prowess to connect. Anytime there are words that rhyme, Paschkis puts them in colors, which makes it easy for kids to grasp. Paschkis’ whimsical gouache-and-ink illustrations, meanwhile, lend themselves to the whirling, swooping, colorful magic-show setting." — Stephanie Seales

March 3, 2017 - Booklist online

05/01/2017
PreS-Gr 2—A mustachioed magician and his glamorous assistant have lots of alphabetical tricks up their sleeves. With the flick of his wand and the change of a letter, the Great Aziz transforms a dish into a fish. He further wows the crowd by turning a rose into a hose, and wire into fire. Zaza, accustomed to cleaning up Aziz's messes, catches the floundering fish and puts it in a bowl, makes sure that the audience isn't soaked by spraying water, and douses the flames. Zaza's patience is pushed to the limit when Aziz turns her wig into a pig. Snatching the magic wand, she turns his black top hat into a bat. Aziz counters by turning the bat into a bag. The spelling sparring rounds spiral out of control when Zaza's beads are turned into beans and the beans into bears. Accepting responsibility for their actions ("I was a cad," says Aziz; "I was just mad," Zaza says), they jointly solve the letter problem and take a big bow together. Paschkis's watercolor illustrations are full of energy and movement. The fluid lines and bold colors capture the power struggle between the two wordsmiths with aplomb. VERDICT A phenomenal phonological fun read-aloud. Children will be shouting for an encore performance.—Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ont.

School Library Journal

2017-01-17
Ta-da! The great magician Aziz performs his magic tricks by turning one object into another, just by changing one letter. The crowd is impressed when "dish" becomes "fish." "Rose" becomes "hose," and "wire" turns into "fire." However, his assistant is left to deal with the fallout from the tricks, capably plopping the fish into a bowl of water and uncoiling the hose to put out the fire. But when Aziz turns her "wig" into a "pig," Zaza glares and her nose flares: "Shazam!" Turnabout is fair play as she turns his "hat" into a "bat," initiating a game of one-upmanship, much to the delight of the audience. Events turn scary when Zaza turns "beans" into threatening "bears." Aziz pulls out a "card," Zaza turns it into a "cord," and together the pair ties up the bears and takes a bow that is a wow. The comic exaggeration of the wordplay is embellished with Paschkis' quick, sketch-artist style of loose, flourishing lines and breezy free-hand whimsy, akin to Marjorie Priceman's artwork in Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss (1995). Brown-skinned, mustachioed Aziz in his top hat and pink-skinned, pear-shaped Zaza are humorous caricatures. Zaza never regains her hair, unflappably and ferociously engaging in combat. Kids can't help but find this quite funny, and the possibilities for extension at home or in the classroom are both plentiful and obvious. This is a spell that is swell. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews