Genre: Humor; Magical realism
Protagonists: Jewish male
Reading level: 600s
Series: Complete with two titles
Originally reviewed in 2019
Review: In my opinion, this is really a young middle grade book. It's just under 200 pages and illustrated, but it has fairly complex vocabulary and I'd promote it primarily to fluent 2nd and 3rd grade readers. However, I put it into my beginning chapter book collection.
Bosch is (was?) a very popular chapter book author. My library only has the first book of his best-known series, The name of this book is secret and although I've considered more titles, I've never gotten enough interest from the kids to purchase more, since they're all available in my consortium. I was interested in this book because I'm looking for younger middle grade and because the magician theme is usually a popular one.
Oliver, an under-sized Jewish eight-year-old, dreams of being a great magician. But with a deck of cards that's incomplete and a lack of, well, magic, that has even his best friends, twins Beatriz (Bea) and Martina (Teenie) unimpressed, he's ready to give up. Then the twins get him invited to the most popular (and nasty) third grader's birthday party - as the star entertainment! Oliver is desperate and begs his cousin, who works in a magic shop, for help. But all he gets is a moldy old hat. A hat with... a talking rabbit inside?
When Oliver arrives at the party, he soon finds out he has more problems than his lack of magic, a bunny on the lam who thinks they're in Vegas, and some mean kids. Bea and Teenie's present for the birthday boy, a robot cat their dads helped them buy, has disappeared and Oliver is accused of being the thief! Can he switch from magician to detective and solve the mystery?
The pages are decorated with frequent line drawings in shades of grey and purple. There are occasional speech bubbles, but I would call this an illustrated chapter book or at most a graphic blend, not a notebook novel or graphic novel.
I wasn't very taken with the book. Benny the bunny talks about a lot of "professional magic" that includes gambling, running from the police for undisclosed reasons, and lots of jokes that I think will pass over most of my readers' heads. There's not really any reason given for the sudden transition from magic tricks and a talking rabbit to solving a mystery; even when it is solved, although the solution is given in the form of a magic trick, it feels forced and the culprit doesn't make any sense. The bullies are over the top, "mean rich kids" and overall the humor felt forced. However, I'm not the audience for this and the real question is, will fluent second graders and third graders enjoy it? I think the answer is yes.
Verdict: I prefer Kate Egan's Magic Shop series, but I admit they don't have a high circulation in my library - not enough pictures would be my guess. I think this will circulate more, especially due to the more extensive graphics. While I don't see it having the staying power of humorous illustrated titles like Dragonbreath, it's certainly a perfectly acceptable filler book for kids in that transitional chapter book phase and features a diverse cast.
Revisited: This never really took off, but it circulates enough to justify keeping it on the shelf. If you don't already own it, I probably wouldn't go back and purchase it though.
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