Share-A-Book Saturday (7)

This is something I found over on Just Another Book Addict =), and I thought I'd do my own. There are so many great books out there that get overlooked (especially if they've been out for a while)!

Every Saturday, you share (recommend) a book, preferably one that you haven't reviewed yet. It's just a way to get other books out into the blogging world. This is NOT a review.

Today I'm going to recommend Half Magic by Edward Eager.

Edward Eager has been delighting young readers for more than 40 years with stories that mix magic and reality. Half Magic, the most popular of his tales about four children who encounter magical coins, time-travel herb gardens, and other unlikely devices, is a warm, funny, original adventure. The title refers to a coin that the children find. Through a comical series of coincidences, they discover that the coin is magic. Well, it's not totally magic--it's only (you guessed it) half magic. That means there's a certain logic to the wishes one must make to generate a desired outcome. Imagine the results emerging from inaccurate efforts: half invisible, half rescued, half everything! (Product description from Amazon.com.)

I read this book a few years ago. The library had gotten in a few of these reissues of Edward Eager's books. I read a few of them, but the one I really remembered was Half Magic because of its unique premise: a group of children find a magical wishing coin that only grants half a wish (which means that if you want a full wish, you've got to be a little creative with your wishing).

I remember these books being quaint (and a little bit dated; feminists probably wouldn't like them, but they were originally written in the 1950s). But the children were curious and playful and were great characters with which to share an afternoon or two. The books are intended for younger children (Amazon lists the target ages as 9-12, which is probably about right), but I still found these books (especially Half Magic) to be very enjoyable.