The Wizard Next Door - Hardcover

Glassman, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688106463 ISBN 13: 9780688106461

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1993

Synopsis

A child notices some amazing and magical things about the man who moves in next door--but no one else does.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite the pooh-poohing of his family, a boy suspects that his new neighbor, Mr. Myers, is a wizard. Where he sees dragons and monsters, his sister sees just a dog and a cat, and where he sees a space ship, his mom sees just an ordinary moving truck. The boy finally asks why only he can see what's really going on next door. "Because you're looking for magic," Mr. Myers tells him, and invites him over to show him the real source of the enchantment: books, which open up endless magical worlds. The dryly humorous text here plays straight man to Kellogg's distinctive, flamboyant artwork--the text for a scene showing Mr. Myers as a substitute teacher, for example, reveals only that "his stories really came to life," while the exuberant illustrations show the student body being carried off by flying monkeys as Mr. Myers reads aloud from The Wizard of Oz . It's a rollicking good read from beginning to end. Ages 5-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Ages 5-8. Mr. Myers, the wizard next door, has strange pets, strange potions, and strange powers--but no one sees (or wants to see) them except our young protagonist. Why? "Because you're looking for magic," the wizard tells the boy. Following a variety of magical manifestations (storybook characters coming to life; a classroom math lesson conducted according to a book titled Underwater Mathemadness), Mr. Myers takes his young neighbor on as "sorcerer's apprentice," and all ends in a highly satisfactory fashion. Kellogg is at his fantasy best representing the magical mayhem, and Glassman's first-person narrative has plot, pace, and humor. It's a win-win combination, good for reading aloud in the classroom or to older story-time attendees. Janice Del Negro

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0688106463
• ISBN 13: 9780688106461
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1
• Illustrator: Kellogg Steven