'After being humiliated by a badly behaved squirrel on national television, Marvin has vowed NEVER to perform magic in public again. But when he acquires a mysterious book that promises to show those with the gift of magic how to use it properly, his best friend Asha persuades him to make a comeback in the school talent show.
'Watch Marvellous Marvin take to the stage to demonstrate the magic that can be found in true friendship!'
Marvin has grown up loving magic. his grandfather was a magician, and would always be teaching Marvin new tricks and different acts whenever he came to visit. He told Marvin that he had a gift for magic, and it inspired Marvin to want to follow in his footsteps and be a magician. Alas, his dreams to be a great stage magician died when he appeared on a TV talent show.
Not wanting to be a boring magician who just pulls a rabbit from a hat, Marvin brings along a squirrel, who soon escapes and causes huge chaos that leave Marvin a televised embarrassment. He vows to quit magic on the spot, and has to deal with bullies at school mocking him and reminding him of his failure.
When his school decide to host their own talent show his best friend Asha wants to take part, coming up with the idea for a very elaborate act, and encourages Marvin to take part too in an attempt to get him to do his magic tricks again. Marvin, not wanting anything to do with magic anymore, takes his box of tricks to a strange shop in town, Clive's Emporium, to sell it so that he can never do magic again. However, when Clive offers to exchange the box of magic tricks for a real book of magic Marvin's life will be changed forever.
Marvin and the Book of Magic is a really nice story about overcoming embarrassment, of continuing on with the things that you love, and doing selfless acts. Jenny Pearson manages to fit a lot into a relatively short book, yet never leaves you feeling like there's too much. We get to know Marvin really well, we learn about his family, seeing his relationship with his father and grandfather, we see his friendship with Asha, and there's a lot of time for he and Asha to have fun with each other too. Pearson knows that we need to get to know the character in order to care about his story and his issues, and makes sure that that's included.
There are good morals in the book, lessons that kids will enjoy without feeling like they're being preached to or told what they should consider important. Marvin learns that he needs to be true to himself, and he learns that giving up something important to help someone he cares about it a better thing to do than hoarding something special just to himself. Marvin comes out of the story not just more confident, but kinder too, and that's the kind of lesson that young readers need to follow.
As well as Pearson's writing, the book comes with a number of illustrations by Aleksei Bitskoff, who turns some of the more important parts of the book into some great images. The first of these is the moment that Marvin and his squirrel cause chaos on TV, and it includes all of the wonderful destruction that Pearson described, yet also manages to get a couple of little jokes in there too; such as one of the talent judges looking eerily familiar to a very famous TV talent show judge from real life. Clive's Emporium is also another highlight illustration that showcases all of the weird and wonderful things in the shop that younger readers will want to spend some time looking through. The illustrations are a wonderful accompaniment to the writing, and enhance a number of scenes.
Marvin and the Book of Magic is a great book for younger readers, with a ton of fun and jokes and some great moral messages.
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