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A Plague of Sorcerers

PlagueSorcerersA Plague of Sorcerers by Mary Frances Zambreno, 1991.

Jermyn Graves comes from a family of sorcerers, but although he seems to have the talent, it takes him unusually long to get his familiar. Familiars, animals with a special link to a wizard, assisting them in their magic, come to their masters when they are ready to begin learning magic, and without one, Jermyn cannot really be a wizard.

When Jermyn’s familiar finally appears, everyone is surprised to find that it is a skunk. Some people make fun of him for having such a strange familiar. No one is quite sure what the meaning of his familiar is, and the exact nature of Jermyn’s magical talent is still unknown. Still, his aunt apprentices him to a theoretician, a man who does not actually practice magic himself, but who studies the theory behind it. He can assist Jermyn until Jermyn’s true talents become known and he can study with a master who shares his specialty.

Jermyn likes his new master and the young orphan girl who lives with him. However, disaster soon strikes the city. Sorcerers are falling victim to a strange disease that sends them into a coma. Despite their best efforts, none of the remaining sorcerers can discover the source of the disease or its cure, and all the time, there are less and less sorcerers to continue the work. Time is running out, and Jermyn and his unusual familiar may be the only ones capable of finding the answer.

Jermyn does have a special talent which he comes to fully understand, and he uses it to save the other sorcerers and put an end to the mysterious plague.  Although the others had laughed at Jermyn’s skunk, he later comes to realize that she was the one keeping him from getting the plague himself because of some unusual qualities of her own.  The combination of mystery and fantasy is exciting, and there is a mysterious villain who may not even be aware of their villainy because of their own hidden sides.

This book is currently out of print, but there are used copies still available, and you can also buy an electronic copy from American Fantasy Press.

There is a note in the beginning of the book that says that the first two chapters are based on a short story written by the author earlier.  The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.  There is also a sequel to this book, Journeyman Wizard.

Posted on by TracyC

The Wizard’s Apprentice

WizardsApprentice

The Wizard’s Apprentice by S.P. Somtow, 1993.

WizardsApprenticePic1Sixteen-year-old Aaron Maguire thinks of himself as a typical teenager, even though his family is far from typical.  His mother is a buyer for a fashion boutique, and his father does special effects for monster movies in Hollywood.  They’re also officially “separated” and preparing for a divorce, even though they’re still living in the same house.  So far, they’ve just kind of divided the house in two in order to have their own space.  Aaron goes back and forth between the two halves of the same house as his parents share him.  It’s a little weird (and, to Aaron, also a little depressing), but there’s weirder to come.

An old man approaches Aaron and tells him that he’s destined to be a wizard and that he will teach Aaron what he needs to know.  At first, Aaron thinks this man is nuts and probably homeless, but what he says is true.  The old man is the wizard Anaxagoras.  Anaxagoras demonstrates to Aaron how the skateboarding maneuver he had just pulled off defies the laws of physics and tells Aaron things about his personal life that no one should know (how angry he is with his parents about their separation and about his crush on Penelope Karpovsky, a girl he knows from biology class).  He also changes the dollar Aaron had offered him into a $100 bill and shows him that they can travel to magical lands and even through time.  Although Aaron still has trouble believing what he sees (his father does special effects for a living, after all), he becomes Anaxagoras’s apprentice.

Partly because Aaron still has doubts and needs something physical to convince him of the wizard’s powers and trustworthiness, Anaxagoras gives him a mirror.  It looks basically like an ordinary pocket mirror with a neon pink frame, but Anaxagoras invites him to ponder it and figure out what it does, telling him that what he does with it is important.

WizardsApprenticePic2However, when Aaron meets the divine Penelope for pizza and she asks to borrow a mirror to check her hair, Aaron lets her borrow Anaxagoras’s mirror.  He instantly regrets it because the mirror suddenly changes in Penelope’s hands.  Now, it has a tortoiseshell frame and is shaped like a heart.  Penelope, who has low self-esteem in spite of her prettiness, is suddenly really happy when she looks in the mirror and refuses to give it back, insisting that she wants to borrow it for a few days.  Because Aaron is in love with Penelope, he finally agrees to let her keep it for awhile.

When Aaron tries to tell Anaxagoras about Penelope borrowing the mirror, he doesn’t seem concerned.  He just hurries Aaron on to his next lesson, which involves a plumbing problem.  Anaxagoras’s lessons are pretty weird, although Aaron finds himself learning that there is more magic in the everyday world than he ever suspected.

Aaron later attempts his own feat of magical plumbing at the studio where his dad is working and encounters a creature of darkness.  The mirror gets out of his hands, and he enchants a car in order to chase it down.  Finally, a dare from some classmates causes him to unleash a dragon on the unsuspecting city, one that only Aaron can understand and defeat, once he realizes the true nature of his magical mirror.

Aaron has a distinctive voice as a California teenager, and his first experiments with magic lead him to some surprising discoveries about himself which help him to understand and reconcile his feelings about his parents’ divorce.

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Thunder Cake

ThunderCake

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco, 1990.

A girl talks about how her grandmother, who she likes to call “Babushka” because she originally came from Russia, cured her of her fear of storms by teaching her to make a special kind of cake, Thunder Cake.

The girl is staying with her grandmother on her farm in Michigan during the summer, and the sound of thunder terrifies the girl so much that she just wants to hide under the bed.  However, her grandmother insists that the girl come out and help her gather the ingredients for her Thunder Cake.

ThunderCakeGrandma

The grandmother explains to the girl how to tell how far away a storm is by counting the seconds between when she sees a flash of lightning and when she hears the sound of thunder.  She also says that they need to get the cake ready by the time the storm actually arrives, so they’d better hurry.

ThunderCakeIngredients

Keeping track of how close the storm is and getting all the ingredients together to make the cake helps to keep the girl busy, and by the time the storm actually arrives, she is no longer afraid.

ThunderCakeFinished

The pictures are an interesting combination of pencil drawings and bright colors.  The faces and hands of the girl and her grandmother are completely in pencil, but their clothes and everything around them are painted.

I didn’t include the recipe for Thunder Cake here because the book is still in print, and I have kind of a rule that I don’t include recipes from books that are still in print.  However, this recipe is one of the more well-known ones from children’s literature, and it’s pretty widely available on the Internet, some with pictures of the cakes people made from this recipe.  For example, this blog has a nice article about this book with helpful notes for those who want to try to make the cake.  This site also has the recipe along with some comments from others who tried it.  I was surprised the first time I read it that one of the ingredients in the chocolate cake was tomatoes, but the consensus seems to be that they are really necessary to make this cake properly.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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Kat and the Missing Notebooks

KatMissingNotebooks

Kat and the Missing Notebooks by Emma Bradford, 1999.

KatMissingNotebooksDaVinciThis book is part of the Stardust Classics series.

This time, Kat and her aunt, Jessie, find themselves in Florence during the Renaissance. They appear shortly before someone attempts to steal some very important papers belonging to the Florentine City Council from Signor Millori. Kat and Pietro, Signor Millori’s son, both run after the thief, and Kat helps to get the papers back. To thank Kat for her help, Signor Millori invites her and Jessie to stay with him and his family in their palazzo during their stay in Florence.

Signor Millori is a wealthy banker, and the palazzo is a grand place. Kat and Pietro become friends, and he confides in her how much he loves art. Pietro’s father wants him to become a banker, but Pietro’s dream is to study painting with Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, he takes Kat and her aunt to see Leonardo painting a mural at the Palazzo del Vecchio.

Leonardo notices Kat’s aunt and thinks that she has an interesting face. When he asks her to come to his studio to pose for some sketches, she eagerly accepts. Kat hopes that she can use the opportunity to show Leonardo Pietro’s artistic talent and convince him to take Pietro on as a student. However, although Leonardo likes the sketch of Pietro’s that he sees, he says that he has enough apprentices at the moment. Pietro cannot resist the opportunity to study Leonardo’s work, however, and borrows a couple of his notebooks to study.

KatMissingNotebooksFlightBesides being a great artist, Leonardo da Vinci is also a scientist, and along with his notes on art, there are sketches and plans for possible inventions in the notebooks. Kat and Pietro go to return the notebooks the next day, but before they can get to Leonardo’s studio, the same thief who tried to steal Signor Millori’s papers steals the notebooks.

Florence has been at war with Pisa for some time, and the Florentine City Council has consulted with Leonardo da Vinci to see if he can come up with some inventions that would give them the upper hand. They know that the thief must be a spy for Pisa who is trying to see what Leonardo has been working on. However, Kat knows that if they do not retrieve the notebooks, history may be changed. Soon, it becomes obvious that the spy has an accomplice who is living in the Millori’s palazzo. Can Kat and Pietro find the notebooks and stop the spies before it is too late?

Although this is a fantasy story that involves time travel, it is based on historical events, and there is a section in the back that explains more about the Italian Renaissance and Leonardo da Vinci.  At the time of the story, Italy was not a united country.  The Italian peninsula was covered with many small city-states which frequently fought each other.  In 1494, Pisa broke away from Florence, and Florence fought for several years to bring it back under their control, until they eventually succeeded in 1509.  This conflict was the basis for the story, and the artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci was consulted by the Florentine Council during the struggle.

Also in the back of the book is an explanation of mirror writing, which Leonardo da Vinci used in his notebooks.  There are also instructions for making fresco ornaments and a recipe for Nutty Biscotti.

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Kat the Time Explorer

KatTimeExplorer

Kat the Time Explorer by Emma Bradford, 1998.

KatTimeExplorerTrain.jpgTen-year-old Kat is going to be living with her Aunt Jessie for the next year.  Her parents are botanists, and they are spending a year in South America, studying rain forest plants.  Aunt Jessie lives in a house in the same town as Kat and her parents so, by staying with her, Kat can continue going to the same school and see her friends.

Like Kat’s parents, Aunt Jessie is also a scientist and teaches physics at the same college where her parents teach when they’re not doing research abroad.  She inherited her house from their Great-Uncle Malcolm, who was an inventor.  Malcolm never invented anything that made much money or got much attention, but Jessie has been going through his things and discovered something interesting among his unfinished projects: a time machine.  The time machine seems to be nearly complete, although Jessie isn’t quite sure how to operate it or what should power it.  There is a drawing of a strange medallion in Malcolm’s notes, and Jessie found one with the same markings among Malcolm’s belongings, but it’s unclear whether this medallion is supposed to play any role in the time machine’s function or if it’s completely unrelated.

Then, Kat discovers another medallion in Malcolm’s old room, one with identical markings but made out of a different type of metal.  There is a space on the time machine for each of the medallions to fit.  When Kat experiments with how the medallions can fit into the machine, she activates it, transporting herself and Jessie back in time to England in 1851.

They find themselves on a train with other travelers heading to The Great Exhibition in London where people from around the world will be displaying new developments in industry and technology.  No one notices Jessie and Kat’s sudden arrival because the train is packed with people and the time machine has somehow altered their clothing and other small objects in their possession to ones that are appropriate to the period.  They also seem to be able to understand people speaking other languages neither of them knew before.  The time machine itself is packed into an ordinary-looking bag.  The two of them decide that they can’t use the time machine on the train where everyone will see them, and besides, they are both curious about the time they find themselves in.  After a temporary mix-up where they are separated at the train station, they find each other again and manage to locate a woman who will rent a room to them for a couple of days.

Unfortunately, when they start unpacking in their room, they discover that their bag was accidentally switched at the station for an identical one.  They no longer have the time machine and can’t get home!  Inside the bag they have, they find articles of men’s clothing, a small spring of some kind, an incomplete sketch of some kind of invention, a ticket to the Exhibition, and a letter written to someone named Edward from his brother Sidney about the Exhibition and the invention they plan to demonstrate there.  The brothers are very concerned about the success of their demonstration and are depending on results to make some money and save their family’s estate.  With those clues, Jessie and Kat must track down these inventors and find their time machine, saving not only themselves from being stuck in the past but the future of the two brothers!

There is an educational section in the back that explains about the Victorian Era and the Great Exposition.  It also discusses Victorian manners and tea parties.  There are tips for making little sandwiches of the kind people would eat at tea parties.

This book is part of the Stardust Classics series.

Posted on by TracyC

Alissa, Princess of Arcadia

AlissaAlissa, Princess of Arcadia by Jillian Ross, 1997.

Alissa, the only child of King Edmund of Arcadia, feels like her life has taken a turn for the worse since she turned ten years old.  Before, she lived a basically care-free life, but now, her family has become more serious about her education and training as the future Queen of Arcadia.  Her great-aunts are mainly in charge of her education now, and they find Alissa to be ill-mannered, impatient, and stubborn.  In some ways, she is.  Alissa is bored with her lessons in the standard school subjects and hates her “deportment” lessons, where she learns etiquette suited to the royal court.  More than anything, she wants adventure and excitement.

To Alissa’s surprise, she meets a strange old man one evening while walking in the garden who promises her the adventure that she’s looking for.  At first, Alissa doesn’t know what to think about this strange old man, Balin, who seems to know everything about her, even what she’s been thinking.  He sets Alissa a “quest”, to solve a riddle to determine where to find him.  After pondering it for awhile, Alissa realizes that the riddle says that Balin lives in the oldest tower of the castle, where no one ever goes anymore.

AlissaBalinIt turns out that Balin is a wizard.  He’s lived in the tower for centuries and hardly ever leaves, so most people have forgotten that he’s there.  He offers Alissa lessons in magic and the kind of quests that she’s been craving.  He once taught Alissa’s father similar lessons, although he thinks that King Edmund has also forgotten that he exists.  Alissa eager accepts the offer of magic lessons.

At first, the only other person who knows about Alissa’s lessons with Balin is Lia, a servant of one of Alissa’s great-aunts.  Lia had been about to run away from her position as servant because she didn’t think that she was very good at her job, but Alissa caught her the night when she was going to find Balin in his tower.  The two of them became friends, and Alissa makes Lia her lady-in-waiting. Alissa enjoys having someone her age to share her secrets and adventures.  Her great-aunts disapprove of her choice of lady-in-waiting, but Alissa’s father appreciates Lia because she sees the better side of Alissa, her bravery and kindness, and somewhat helps Alissa’s impatience because Lia is a more patient, cautious person.

AlissaKingWhen Alissa first begins her lessons with Balin, she thinks that studying magic is turning out to be as boring as her other lessons.  Balin makes her do little chores, like dusting things in his tower, and he has her read books and memorize words.  Alissa is impatient to get on with the exciting magic, but Balin impresses on her that she needs to start out slowly and to recognize that magic is not the solution to all things.

Meanwhile, Alissa’s father is preparing to hold a banquet to celebrate a new alliance with a neighboring kingdom.  Now that Alissa is old enough to participate in such banquets, she learns that she must not only attend the banquet but be the dinner partner of the invited king, who she has heard is a stern man who is a stickler for proper manners.  Alissa is terrified that she will make a mistake during the banquet, anger the king, and ruin everything.

Her fears grow worse when Balin tells her that he has seen impending disaster in his crystal ball and a threat to the alliance.  Alissa begs him to tell her more, but he says that something is preventing his magic from seeing more.  All he has to offer Alissa are a few vague hints which take the form of another riddle.

Balin believes that Alissa is the only one who can solve the riddle, stop the danger, and save the alliance, but Alissa doubts herself.  She’s still afraid that she isn’t up to the task and will ruin everything, and she wishes that Balin would give her some magic spell to prevent her from doing anything wrong.  However, the best weapons Alissa has are the ones she already possesses: her wits, her desire to work hard for what she wants to achieve, and the new patience that she is just starting to learn.

One of the things that I liked about the story was that the visiting king, for all of his sternness and demanding nature with others, is surprisingly understanding with Alissa.  Some adults still remember what it was like to be young and awkward and impatient to grow up.

This book does not have extra information or activities in the back, as other books in the Stardust Classics series do.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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Basil in the Wild West

BasilWestBasil in the Wild West by Eve Titus, 1990.

This book picks up right after the previous book in the Basil of Baker Street Series, Basil in Mexico.

After leaving Mexico, Basil and his best friend Dr. Dawson journey north into the western territories of the United States.  There, some friends of their ask them to investigate a smuggling operation.  Mice have been illegally bringing Mexican antiquities across the border.

Basil realizes that the smugglers have been smuggling the antiquities in the open, pretending that they are ordinary replicas, the kind that tourists often buy.  Because the border guards aren’t experts in antiquities, they haven’t been able to tell the difference between harmless souvenir replicas and the real thing.

When they catch one of these smugglers, they learn that the mastermind behind the scheme is a mouse called J.J. in a town called Moriarty in New Mexico (the name of the town irritates Basil).  They go to the town with the help of some friendly horses and confront J.J..  At first, they think it won’t be too difficult because, although J.J.’s house is well-guarded, he is confined to a wheel chair because of an accident.  However, the wheel chair is an act, and J.J. is no ordinary mouse.

BasilWestPic2Although J.J. escapes, Basil and Dr. Dawson decide that the smuggling ring has been defeated and it’s alright to continue their sight-seeing.  However, their adventures are not over!

Basil and Dawson want to see the Grand Canyon, but it turns out that the hotel where they are staying is being terrorized by a weird, glowing Thing.  Nobody knows what it is, but guests think it could be some kind of ghost or monster, and many of them are too afraid to stay.  The owners of the hotel ask Basil to discover what the Thing is and stop whoever may be behind it before their hotel is ruined!

This book is really two stories in one, and neither has any direct bearing on the other.  In that way, it’s kind of disjointed.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Secret is Out

SecretIsOut

The Secret is Out: True Spy Stories by Teri Martini, 1990.

This is a non-fiction book about famous spies in history.  It begins with a discussion of spies in general and asks the question of whether spies are heroes or villains.  The answer depends on which side they’re on and which side you’re on.  Spies around the world and throughout history have been engaged in similar work, using similar tactics, although technology has changed the profession in modern times.  Even spies on opposite sides of a conflict use the same skills and tactics, they just employ them for the benefit of different countries or causes.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

The stories contained in the book:

SecretIsOutPic1The Gentleman Spy — This is the story of Captain John Andre and General Benedict Arnold during the American Revolution.  John Andre was a British officer who was executed for his role in helping Benedict Arnold defect to the British side.

Abraham Lincoln’s Personal Spy — The famous Pinkerton detective agency, the first detective agency in the United States, played an important role in the American Civil War.

The Spy with “the Delicate Air” — Spies were not always part of an official organization.  Even a civilian could turn spy in the name of a cause she believed in as Belle Boyd did during the American Civil War.

The Black Chamber — In the early 1900s, agents of the Austro-Hungarian Empire tracked down a mysterious agent in the pay of Russia and discover that the person they were looking for was the man who had once been in charge of their own organization.

The Eye of the Morning — Mata Hari was one of the most famous spies of all time, although she wasn’t really successful.  It was more her reputation as a dancer and the manner of her death that made her famous.

SecretIsOutPic2The Phantom of the Desert — Lawrence of Arabia was actually Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British army Captain.  He helped the Arabs to fight against the Turks during WWI.

The Spy without a Country — A poor young man from Hungary with a habit of telling tall tales left home to seek his fortune and eventually ended up becoming a Member of Parliament in Britain under the name of Trebitsch Lincoln.  However, when Trebitsch Lincoln was in need of money during WWI, he decided to turn to spying.

Mincemeat Swallowed Whole — This is one of my favorite true spy stories!  During WWII, the British concocted a scheme to give false information to the Germans using a dead body that supposedly was a drowned British marine carrying important documents.

The Clenched Fist — Fritz Kolbe spied for the Allies from within Hitler’s foreign office during WWII.

The Third Man — Harold “Kim” Philby was a spy for British intelligence during the Cold War, but he was secretly working for the Soviet Union.s

The Spy Next Door — Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was a Russian spy who posed as an ordinary American, Emil Goldfuss, in New York City.  After he was captured, the Americans decided not to execute him, although that was the usual punishment for espionage.  Instead, he was held prisoner until he could be used for the famous prisoner exchange where he was traded to the Russians for the captured U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

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Fudge-A-Mania

FudgeAManiaFudge-A-Mania by Judy Blume, 1990.

Peter is horrified when he finds out that his family is going to spend their vacation in the same place as bossy know-it-all Sheila Tubman and her family.  Even worse, the two families are going to be staying to be staying right next to each other.  Really right next to each other.  They’re staying in the same house, which has been split into two halves.  As far as Peter is concerned, the only thing that might save his summer is that his friend Jimmy will be coming up to stay with them part of the time.

The arrangement turns out to be a little better than Peter thought it would be at first.  Sheila finds a way to make some extra money by baby-sitting Peter’s five-year-old brother Fudge.  Fudge says at first that he wants to marry Sheila, although it turns out to be mostly because he’s afraid of monsters in his room at night, and he thinks that if he gets married and shares a room with Sheila, it will keep the monsters away.  Then, he decides that marriage may be unnecessary when he makes friends with a little girl named Mitzi, who is staying with her grandparents nearby.  Mitzi’s grandmother makes a special monster spray for her to keep monsters away, so Fudge decides that he might not have to marry Sheila after all.

Peter is happy when he discovers that Mitzi’s grandfather is Big Apfel, his baseball hero, and that he holds baseball games that are open to the public, so he and Jimmy can also play with him.  He also gets a crush on Isobel (“Izzy”), a girl who works at the local library, although Isobel is a few years older than he is.  The baseball game goes well enough, but the crush, not so much.

Then, comes the most shocking news of the summer: Peter’s grandmother and Sheila’s grandfather decide to get married!  If that happens, Peter and Sheila realize that they’ll be related by marriage!

Big Apfel and his granddaughter Mitzi are fictional characters, but the book that Mitzi claims is about her, Tell Me a Mitzi, is a real book.

This book is part of the Fudge Series.  It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Mystery on Taboga Island

TabogaIslandMystery on Taboga Island by Patricia Maloney Markun, 1995.

Amy is excited to be spending the summer with her aunt on Taboga Island, off the coast of Panama, near the Panama Canal.  Aunt Rhoda is a curator for an art museum, and she is writing a series of art lectures.  In particular, she has an interest in Paul Gauguin, who painted in Panama in the late 1800s.  She has invited Amy to join her for the summer not only so that she can visit another country but because of their mutual interest in art.  Amy loves drawing and painting and wants to be an artist someday.

The one drawback of going is that Amy is worried that she will be lonely over the summer.  She doesn’t know whether there will be any kids her age close by or if she would be able to talk to them if there are because she doesn’t speak Spanish.  Fortunately, soon after they arrive on Taboga, Amy meets Zoe.  Zoe is from California but she comes to visit her relatives on Taboga every year.  She introduces Amy to her cousin, Juan, as well.  The three of them become friends, and Zoe and Juan even share their special, secret hiding place with Amy: a old lookout point on an old, abandoned pier left from World War II that can only be reached by walking on a narrow beam over the water.

TabogaIslandPicThey also introduce Amy to Madame Odelle, who people call The Bird Woman because of all the birds she keeps around her house.  She is a widow who lives alone and hardly ever sees people, but she invites the children in and when she learns that Amy is interested in art, she shows them a special painting that her family has had for generations.  Madame says that her grandfather bought the painting years ago from a traveling Frenchman who was in need of money.  Amy thinks that it looks like one of Paul Gauguin’s paintings, and she knows that some of his work is unaccounted for.  However, the initials on the painting are PGO.  What could the ‘O’ stand for?

Then, the painting is suddenly stolen, and there’s no shortage of suspects.  A strange woman named Phoebe Quincy has been lurking around Madame’s house and asking questions about her.  There’s also Donald S. Deffenbach, a birdwatcher who doesn’t seem to know much about birds, and Captain Billy, an Australian who owns a sailboat that he sails himself.  Dr. Denis Dobson, who is also a Gauguin expert, also happens to be staying at the resort on the island.  He is visiting places where Gauguin painted while writing a book about him.  Could he be the thief?

I like this book for the pieces of history about Panama and Paul Gauguin, which are important in solving the mystery and understanding the origin of Madame’s mysterious painting.  One of the things I remembered most about reading this book as a child, though, was when Amy and her aunt were eating at the little restaurant on the island and her aunt urged her to try a Panamanian dish so that she could get used to trying new foods when she travels.  Amy tries a tamale for breakfast and loves it, wishing that she had been brave enough to try it earlier since she and her aunt are now planning to do more of their own cooking.  I was familiar with tamales as a kid, but not for breakfast, although I like the idea.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.