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I didn't enjoy this as much as I expected to given the number of good reviews it's garnered over the years.
Nita has problems with being bullied at school and while trying to escape pursuers she hides out in the library where she finds a book on wizarding, seemingly meant only for her. It's the start of her wizarding career. She soon meets Kit, also taking his first steps in magic. Together they end up on a quest to an alternate New York City, accompanied by a miniaturised white dwarf star called Fred, battling an ancient evil that invented death itself.
Predictably they not only succeed, though not without sacrifice and loss, but also the changes wrought in both children enable them to withstand the bullying at school.
I don't know wether it was the American setting, but somehow I just didn't find this convincing. Initially they are led to New York City and the magic portal between worlds just so that Nita can get her favourite pen back from Fred who has accidentally swallowed it. That seems a bit of a lame entry into peril. The peril when it does come in genuine, for the alternative New York they find themselves in is dark and scary with helicopters and cars turned into ravening mechanical beasts. Kit has an Androcles and the Lion moment, helping an 'injured' car and they, in turn, are helped on account of their good deed.
First published in 1983 this book seems to have been updated and reissued a number of times. I read the millennium edition.
Nita has problems with being bullied at school and while trying to escape pursuers she hides out in the library where she finds a book on wizarding, seemingly meant only for her. It's the start of her wizarding career. She soon meets Kit, also taking his first steps in magic. Together they end up on a quest to an alternate New York City, accompanied by a miniaturised white dwarf star called Fred, battling an ancient evil that invented death itself.
Predictably they not only succeed, though not without sacrifice and loss, but also the changes wrought in both children enable them to withstand the bullying at school.
I don't know wether it was the American setting, but somehow I just didn't find this convincing. Initially they are led to New York City and the magic portal between worlds just so that Nita can get her favourite pen back from Fred who has accidentally swallowed it. That seems a bit of a lame entry into peril. The peril when it does come in genuine, for the alternative New York they find themselves in is dark and scary with helicopters and cars turned into ravening mechanical beasts. Kit has an Androcles and the Lion moment, helping an 'injured' car and they, in turn, are helped on account of their good deed.
First published in 1983 this book seems to have been updated and reissued a number of times. I read the millennium edition.
