Magic Spell

February 1, 2017
Ta-da! The great magician Aziz performs his magic tricks by turning one object into another, just by changing one letter. The crowd is impressed when "dish" becomes "fish." "Rose" becomes "hose," and "wire" turns into "fire." However, his assistant is left to deal with the fallout from the tricks, capably plopping the fish into a bowl of water and uncoiling the hose to put out the fire. But when Aziz turns her "wig" into a "pig," Zaza glares and her nose flares: "Shazam!" Turnabout is fair play as she turns his "hat" into a "bat," initiating a game of one-upmanship, much to the delight of the audience. Events turn scary when Zaza turns "beans" into threatening "bears." Aziz pulls out a "card," Zaza turns it into a "cord," and together the pair ties up the bears and takes a bow that is a wow. The comic exaggeration of the wordplay is embellished with Paschkis' quick, sketch-artist style of loose, flourishing lines and breezy free-hand whimsy, akin to Marjorie Priceman's artwork in Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss (1995). Brown-skinned, mustachioed Aziz in his top hat and pink-skinned, pear-shaped Zaza are humorous caricatures. Zaza never regains her hair, unflappably and ferociously engaging in combat. Kids can't help but find this quite funny, and the possibilities for extension at home or in the classroom are both plentiful and obvious. This is a spell that is swell. (Picture book. 4-8)

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May 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 2-A mustachioed magician and his glamorous assistant have lots of alphabetical tricks up their sleeves. With the flick of his wand and the change of a letter, the Great Aziz transforms a dish into a fish. He further wows the crowd by turning a rose into a hose, and wire into fire. Zaza, accustomed to cleaning up Aziz's messes, catches the floundering fish and puts it in a bowl, makes sure that the audience isn't soaked by spraying water, and douses the flames. Zaza's patience is pushed to the limit when Aziz turns her wig into a pig. Snatching the magic wand, she turns his black top hat into a bat. Aziz counters by turning the bat into a bag. The spelling sparring rounds spiral out of control when Zaza's beads are turned into beans and the beans into bears. Accepting responsibility for their actions ("I was a cad," says Aziz; "I was just mad," Zaza says), they jointly solve the letter problem and take a big bow together. Paschkis's watercolor illustrations are full of energy and movement. The fluid lines and bold colors capture the power struggle between the two wordsmiths with aplomb. VERDICT A phenomenal phonological fun read-aloud. Children will be shouting for an encore performance.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ont.

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