Making Goals: Soccer on Sunday (Magic Tree House #52) by Mary Pope Osbourne

"I wonder where we'll go today?" said Jack.

Annie began to speak in a dramatic voice, like a TV announcer."What amazing person will Jack and Annie meet today?"

Jack laughed and shook his head.

"Our lives are kind of crazy," said Annie.

"You think?" said Jack.

School's out and Jack and Annie could be sleeping late, but a familiar flash at her window had just aroused Annie.  Tiptoeing into Jack's room in the pre-dawn gloom, she shook him out of a dream,

"We have to go," she said.  "It's back."

Against the graying sky they find the Magic Tree House high  in the tall oak in the woods, with a summons from Merlin:

Now you must learn the fourth secret of greatness from one of the finest athletes of all time, Pele' the Great.

With the note they find two tickets to the final World Cup game in Mexico in 1970, along with the tiny bottle of the magic Mist of Avalon that can grant them one hour of great skill at whatever they choose, and the Ring of Truth.  Jack makes the wish and they spin back through years to the final match in Mexico City.

Jack and Annie are surprised to find that they emerge in their same shorts and tees.  It seems those haven't changed much since 1970. They also find that their pockets are full of pesos and they set out to navigate the subways and trams of the huge Mexican capital to Aztec Stadium where the final game between Brazil and Italy is to be played.  The crowds are overwhelming for the two kids from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania,  but they meet up with a big city boy named Roberto, also on his way to the match, with his birthday ticket and with his own mission--to remember everything and hurry home to tell his eight brothers and sisters everything that Pele' does. With Roberto steering them from subway to subway to trolley, they arrive with only a few minutes to spare before the game. Jack and Annie have great seats in the second row, but Roberto's seat is near to top of the stadium, barely visible.  As he bids them farewell, Jack and Annie have an idea.

"Everybody says it's the game of a lifetime," Jack said.

"Roberto! We have to trade seats," said Annie. "Because it's your birthday. If you have a good seat, you can tell our brothers and sisters and your parents all about it."

It is an amazing game, but in the huge crowd of fans around the victorious Pele' and his team, Jack and Annie can find no way to speak to the great player and learn his secret of greatness. Disappointed, they let Roberto show them the way to a bus stop near his aunt's house to catch a less-crowded ride back downtown. The three meet up with  a group of Roberto's friends playing "futbol" who invite them to join the game. When Jack and Annie and Roberto admit to each other that they are enthusiastic, but not very good players,  Jack decides that they might as well use the Mist of Avalon to make them great players for a little while. And there, as they celebrate on that muddy field in the warm drizzle of Mexico City, Annie and Jack discover the last secret of greatness, when Roberto exults "Enthusiasm is everything!" and sets the Ring of Truth to glowing brightly.

Mary Pope Osborne's latest Magic Tree House book, Magic Tree House #52: Soccer on Sunday (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2014), completes Annie and Jack's Merlin Mission to discover the secrets of greatness--humility, hard work, purpose, and enthusiasm. Author Osborne obviously has shown those qualities in accomplishing fifty-two installments in this best-selling series of beginning chapter books which so successfully combine history, biography, and geography with fantasy adventure.

Veteran artist Sal Murdocca has been along for the whole ride, bringing Pope's adventuring brother and sister to life in his trademark illustrations for the many, many readers who have transitioned to independent reading through this blockbuster series. Pair this one with its nonfiction companion book, Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #29: Soccer: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #52: Soccer on Sunday (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2014).

Love Potion Number Mine!: Strega Nona Does It Again by Tomie dePaola

Dear Cousin Strega Nona,

As you know, our oldest daughter Angelina has grown into quite a beauty, which is wonderful and terrible all at once. All the young men leave flowers and gifts and sing love songs--a nuisance! All except Hugo. Angelina claims she is in love with him, but he doesn't even seem to notice. I think the only solution for her is to leave our village until she forgets Hugo.

Duke Andre di Limone and Wife

P.S. I want to warn you that Angelina is a handful!

Angelina shows up with mountains of luggage and the expectation of being catered to every moment. Strega Nona gives up her tidy little room to Angelina, but the girl is not pleased.

"I don't like this room.

My room at home is blue with pink flowers!"

Strega Nona tries to be hospitable to her visiting cousin, but it's not easy. Angelina commandeers her helpers so that Strega Nona finds herself stuck with all the chores. Bambalona, the baker's daughter, considers herself practically an artisan, at the least an independent contractor, and is miffed to find herself declared chamber maid, doing Angelina's hair and dressing her in assorted finery. Big Anthony, appointed footman, discovers that that means he fetches and carries, which he is used to, but also discovers that he has to wear a fancy uniform and silly hat all day to do it. Angelina orders both of them to paint Strega Nona's bedroom blue with giant pink flowers, and then instructs Bambalona to construct a shrine for Hugo outside, a mirror surrounded by fresh flowers arranged daily.

Bored, Angelina summons Bambalona and Big Anthony to escort her to pay social calls on everyone in the village. As her retinue approaches the town, she commands a small boy to run ahead and announce her arrival in the public square. She is overbearing and rude to everyone, even the sisters in the convent. The imperious Angelina can't leave too soon for the residents of the rustic little village.

"Povre mei!" (Poor me!), moans Strega Nona.

But as always, Strega Nona has a plan. She writes her cousin the Duke to come for Angelina and by any means to be sure to bring Hugo along. Then, in her office as good witch of the village, she brews up a love potion which she promises will work and advises Angelina to drink it just before Hugo is shown to his shrine.

Hugo gazes at his magnificent reflection, with Angelina by his side, and suddenly gets the picture.

"You understand me!" he says. "Will you marry me?"

With sighs of relief and happy cries of "Arrivaderci, Angelina!" at last, Strega Nona, Bambalona, and Big Anthony watch the diLimones and Hugo depart together to prepare for the wedding.

"They deserve each other!" said Strega Nona.

"They are both in love with themselves."

Tomie dePaola does it again in his latest wise and witty tale of his kindly but shrewd character, Strega Nona Does It Again (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2013), a series begun in 1973 with his Caldecott Honor Book, Strega Nona. DePaola's watercolor and acrylic illustrations are as humorous and vivid as ever, and Strega Nona, homely but wise in the ways of the world, is an unforgettable character. Love is always in season, and this is a fine little parable for Valentine's Day or any time. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "A wryly funny story of love and entitlement, with all the homey charm that dePaola’s fans expect and love."

Magical Malfunction: Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde

Chapter 3: A Princess Ought To Be Fearless

(That's just crazy: the only people who are fearless are people who have no imagination.)

Princess Imogene Eustacia Wellington is in an un-princessly snit.

Her parents have invited that pesky Prince Malcolm from the kingdom next door to her thirteenth  birthday party. She didn't like him when he was eleven, and he's only going to be just as annoying this time, only bigger!

And the Queen Mother has assigned her to read a boring book, The Art of Being a Princess, fourteen chapters, one smarmy chapter a day, before her birthday, beginning with The Foreword. (Are you kidding? Nobody reads the foreword.)

Princess Imogene has some fun writing snarky comments after each chapter heading, but as for actually reading, she makes it only as far as the opening sentence--One should always strive to be the sort of princess about whom it is said, "She was as good as she was beautiful,"--before ditching the book. She's not feeling particularly beautiful (her hair is impossible), and she's not in the mood to be good, either, as she sneaks out of the castle and goes for a walk. Suddenly, she hears a little voice from somewhere.

"Hey, Princess!"

Princess Imogene realizes that there's a frog on a stereotypical lily pad talking to her. And that frog has a  very strange story--and a vaguely familiar request:

"A witch puts a spell on a prince, turns the prince into a frog.  The only way to break the spell is if a princess  comes along and...you know... 

Don't worry, Princess.  I got my clothes on. They changed right long with me!"

"A Princess Is Always Kind and Helpful--and Fearless," the book had said, so Imogene puckers up and the frog puckers up, insofar as a frog can, and the princess kisses the frog.

The frog turns into a boy--a boy who is NOT and has never been a prince, and that's not the worst of it. It seems the frog omitted one important point in his request: when he turns back into a boy, Imogene becomes a frog in his stead.

And so begins the most interesting fourteen days in Frog Princess Imogene's young life, as she joins the love-snockered farmer's daughter, Luella, hoping to talk her into taking her back to the castle so her parents can deal with the frog problem. But Luella, although kind, has other interests, namely following the "cute" Bertie off with a troupe of actors who promise her a starring role. But Luella soon learns that boys lie and will say anything to get a free washerwoman and cook, and poor Imogene finds herself part of a comedy act--A Boy and His Talking Frog--as they tour from village to village. Being a princess is beginning to look like a better deal all along to the frogged Imogene and it looks like the ditsy and romantically besotted Luella is her only hope to make it back to the castle.

Perhaps the author inherited her comedic writing skills from her mother, who provided her with the perfectly alliterated name, but however she came into them, Vivian Vande Velde is one of the foremost purveyors of the funny and fanciful fractured fairy tale, and her latest does not disappoint.  Our grumpy 'tweener princess Imogene learns a lot about the ways of the medieval world during her coming-of-age days as a captive frog, a time in which she comes to appreciate some of those virtues she formerly spurned.  Even the clueless Luella comes through in the end, returning her to her kingdom and, with a little bit of intellectual assistance from the Queen, comes up with the key to solving her dilemma of  how to become her princessly self without turning another person into a frog in the bargain.

Vande Velde's tongue-in-cheek storytelling, with each chapter an ironic exposition of the chapter headings of The Art of Being A Princess, develops believably within its fairy tale premise, each character fittingly drawn, with the sparklingly humorous dialogue for which the author is well known. Her latest,  Frogged (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), forthcoming April 2, shows Vande Velde at the top of her craft in a funny, freewheeling, fractured fairy tale whose happily-ever-after ending can't help but delight middle readers.

Some of Vivian Vande Velde's other comic walks on the fantastical side include her stuck-inside-the-video game spoofs, User Unfriendly, Deadly Pink, and Heir Apparent, and her body-switching, talking pooch tale, Smart Dog.

Killer Thriller? Hero by Mike Lupica

"POWERS?" Kate said.

"Yeah."

She smiled then. not the way she did when she was making fun of him. Just a smile that told Zach that she believed him.

It was the kind of smile that made him feel as if everything was going to be all right, even though he knew that probably wasn't true, that nothing was going to be the same for him ever again.

"I guess that leaves me with only one question," Kate said.

"Shoot."

Kate Paredes smiled at him again and said, "Are you going to have to wear a cape?"

Zach Harriman is devastated when the father he idolizes dies in an unexplained plane crash, returning from a special mission for the government, presumably against foreign terrorists. But when Zach is drawn to the site of the crash far out on Long Island, he meets a strange old man who calls himself Mr. Herbert, a man who seems to know everything about him and why his father died.

"You should trust me because I was the one who first told your father he had the magic in him," Mr. Herbert said.

"Don't be afraid, boy." the old man said. "You've got the magic, too."

And, then, just like that, the old man was gone.

Zach ran after him, ignoring the high grass, feeling as if all the wind of the day were at his back now. Closed his eyes and ran, faster. Feeling like he was the one flying now.... Like he'd become invisible.

When he opened his eyes--Zach saw that he was running across the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. As if he'd texted himself home.

As if by magic.

It's a kid's dream to be suddenly reborn a hero, a superhero, the inheritor of his father's supernatural powers, the hoped-for avenger and redeemer to vanish the forces of evil, here known simply as The Bads. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are just two recent heroes who struggle with assuming the mantles of their renowned fathers in an eons-old tradition going back past Beowulf to Jason and before, and Mike Lupica, master of the middle-school sports hero story, has decided to cast his current literary lot with these supernatural second-generation heroes.

He partly succeeds. Lupica is skillful in writing credible dialog and creating believable boys, torn by the responsibility to remain true to their powers, be it fast ball, hail Mary pass, or sudden superheroics and of reconciling their ambitions and drives to the vicissitudes of growing up in the world in which they find themselves. Lupica's parental figures are supportive and sensitive, and yet detached enough so that his characters operate pretty much without their interference within their own world. His characters are often blessed also with lovely, dewy-eyed girlfriends who are smart, independent, but unquestioning, and unfailingly unselfish and supportive as well. In his latest, Hero, (Philomel, 2010) Lupica offers up both of these stock characters as fairly-fleshed out minor characters in the form of Zach's mom and his friend Kate, not to mention another staple, two conflicting mentors, the mysterious Mr. Herbert, with "powers" of his own, and "Uncle John," an avuncular family friend who somehow knows of his father's powers and who also seeks to control his super skills against the nebulous "Bads" who threaten Zach daily.

Some kids will love the vicarious thrill of suddenly inhabiting a body equipped with supersonic speed, super-sharp vision and hearing, the ability to detect evil before it appears, and the overwhelming rush of transformative fighting power when it does. After all, it's better than Peter Parker morphing into Spiderman; it's like realizing that you're Superman or the Incredible Hulk with no need for those uncomfortable tights.

Of course, some kids may see through this formulaic novel, finding it all too familiar, with an uncomfortable "Here we go again" feeling. Additionally, unlike Harry and Percy and their literary cousins, Lupica's hero has no intriguing alternative world, no Hogwarts or Camp Half-Blood populated with like beings, in which to mature his powers, and unlike Harry and Percy, whose dark lords are the very essence of good gone wrong, the vision of evil against which Zach is supposed to contend remains fairly nebulous, limited for most of this novel to the occasional goombahs who try to rough him up. Are they the henchmen of some evil but earthly empire, suicide terrorists, minions of some Machiavellian overlord, or spirits from some as-yet undelineated other world? Tune in for the sequel, sure to follow, for further enlightenment.

Wacky Weekend: Ibby's Magic Weekend by Heather Dyer

Ibby's is a bit intimidated by the idea of spending the weekend with her ditzy Aunt Carol and her two adventurous sons, Alex and Francis. Her fears are not allayed when she arrives and find that Francis has been "miniaturized" with the help of a mysterious magic set he found in a dark corner of the attic.

The two-inch Francis is finally found and stashed for safekeeping in an empty cookie jar, but now Alex and Ibby have a problem. Do they tell Aunt Carol what has happened, or do they try to undo the magic with the intriguing wand and Book of Instructions they find inside the kit?

Ibby sensibly suggests that they first try the help line phone number from the back of the Book of Instructions, but the line goes suddenly dead, and against Alex's orders, Ibby decides it's time to show the tiny Francis-in-a-jar to her aunt, when--crash!--the jar slips and in the fall Francis returns to his normal size just in time show up nonchalantly for dinner.

The next day twelve-year-old Alex decides it's his job to take charge of the magic wand, and he wastes no time showing off with the levitation trick. It works so well that Alex is able to float out the window and across the countryside until he fortunately is able to snag the weathervane of a church spire. When the rescuing policeman returns Alex home, Aunt Carol sends him to his room to think about climbing in dangerous places, leaving Francis again in full possession of the magic tricks kit, with his eye on the Disappearing Coin trick.

Despite Ibby's protests that the tricks are becoming more dangerous, the two boys forge on. Francis uses the Disappearing Coin to make himself invisible, and Alex undertakes the scary Life Cycle trick to make himself into a grownup. Ibby is torn between covering for her intrepid cousins or stopping these progressively hazardous transformations by tattling to her aunt.

Just as Alex is recovering from a frightening stint as a diapered baby and the three kids are about to swear off magic, Ibby becomes fascinated by Aunt Carol's story of their vanished Uncle Godfrey, a practicing magician who stepped into his truck and failed to return from his vanishing act five years before. Exploring the corner of the attic where the magic kit was found, they find an empty trunk with an open padlock dangling from the hasp. The keyhole fits the gold key they find in the magic kit, and at once all three children have the same thought.

"Who's going to do the trick?" said Alex.

"I will," said Ibby.

Alex looked at Ibby in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Of course, I'm sure."

Francis was careful to put the want into her hand the right way around. It made her fingertips tingle, as though there was a faint electric current running through it.

Heather Dyer's Ibby's Magic Weekend has a pleasant English fantasy tone which makes the magical adventures of the three spirited would-be magicians an easy read for elementary fantasy fans. With Ibby's success in making the missing magician reappear, a sequel with more magical adventures with Uncle Godfrey looks promising.

Conundrum: The Name Of This Book Is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

WARNING!
DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS PAGE!

Good.
Now I know I can trust you.
You're curious. You're brave. And you're not afraid to lead a life of crime.

But let's get something straight; if, despite my warning you insist on reading this book, you can't hold me responsible for the consequences.

And make no bones about it, this is a very dangerous book.

Pseudonymous Bosch opens his latest, The Name of this Book Is Secret with a dire warning to his readers. Actually, though, his characters should have been the ones to receive the warning, because in this fantasy mystery thriller, they're the ones who "shoulda stood in bed."

But eleven-year-old Cassandra is always prepared for the worst. A dedicated survivalist who always packs a flashlight, rope, and among other gear, a box of grape juice, good for hydration or emergency ink, she's always looking for a disaster to remedy. So when real estate lady Gloria Fortune stops by her grandfathers' shop to drop off a box of left-behind antiques and bric-a-brac from a dead magician's house, Cass is intrigued with a lavish container of fluid-filled vials labelled The Symphony of Smells hidden at the bottom. Recruiting a quirky loner from her sixth grade, Max-Ernest, who is undeniably bright but has a the "condition" of talking incessantly, Cassandra persuades Max to come along to look for more clues inside the magician's house. While sneaking into his strange underground home, the sleuths are forced to hide as agent Gloria shows the house to an odd couple, purported newlyweds, Mr. L., a suave European man, and Ms. Mauvais, an incredibly beautiful, and seemingly very young blonde woman, who together seem to be looking for something besides a honeymoon cottage in the magician's old house.

While inside Cass and Max-Ernest discover a notebook, and when Max cracks the code on the first page, they locate the magician's personal journal which tells the story of the kidnapping of his younger brother, Luciano, more than fifty years before, seemingly abducted because of his special ability--synesthesia--which enabled him to perceive colors and music as scents. When Cass's and Max's classmate Ben is abducted from the school by the same mysterious couple the next day, Cass realizes that Ben must have been taken because he, too, has the power of synesthesia.

Tracking the two down to the Midnight Sun Spa, Cass and Max-Ernest find themselves going undercover to uncover the evil scheme of the two wizards to extract from Ben's body the secret to eternal life and youth. There are many twists and turns to the plot as the two detectives work their way into the inner sanctum of the evil two and courageously rescue their classmate from the cruel clutches of the wizards.

With a wry warning or two for the reader along the way, the tongue-in-cheek author leads our heroes from near miss to brave escape to unforeseen rescue as they work their way to the conclusion, a conclusion which apparently doesn't conclude, as the story closes with a coded message, which, rendered readable by Max's skilled decoding, offers a compelling invitation:

In recognition of your bravery and unique talents, I hereby invite you to become members of the Terces Society--and to enlist in our fight against the Masters of the Midnight Sun.

Understand this: once you swear to the Oath of Terces, your lives, they will never be the same. You will face the hazards and the hardships. And you must obey all the orders without question.

A sequel is indeed forthcoming October 1, and fans of this offbeat and fantastic mystery will doubtless be waiting for the next book, despite its title which warns If You're Reading This, It's Too Late!

Star-Crossed Friends: The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlanc Cate

Wonderfully crafted black and white drawings, illuminated with touches of bright yellow, raise this story of a lost and found bunny into a magic-tinged tale that will fully engage young readers.

Ray is a street magician who lives on a picturesque big-city street in a tiny apartment with his assistant, Bunny, whose job is to appear from Ray's tall hat on cue. As the story opens, we see the two business partners at home, Ray filling his wand with small, die-cut yellow stars as Bunny rests in his tophat. Off to work they go, where just at the moment in the performance in which he is supposed to pop out of the hat in a sparkle of stars from Ray's wand, Bunny is frightened away by the CRASH! of a nearby juggler's falling clubs.

As he flees down the street, bike bells, shouting vendors, and car horns frighten the little rabbit into the relative peace of a wooded park, "a wonderful place for a little bunny, but--no Ray!" As dark falls and Bunny's shadow elongates along the park path, he wanders into the street, longing for his snug apartment and warm dinner.

Dollowing the smell of spilled popcorn, Bunny notices a trail of bright yellow stars on the sidewalk. "STARS! Lots of them!" he thinks. Bunny traces the trail of dropped stars until at last they lead him down into the subway, where on the platform he spots a familiar tophat and climbs inside for a rest. As his train pulls in, Ray picks up the hat and places it on his head, only to discover his missing Bunny inside.

"The last train of the night pulled away. Only the magician and his bunny assistant were left on the platform. But the two old friends never minded the walk home together."

The book ends with the two, the city all around them, nearing home under a sky of bright yellow stars.

In The Magic Rabbit Cate's charming illustrations, from a wide-angle view of the quaint cityscape to the up-close, affectionate warmth of their cozy home, evoke the comforting feel of this tale in which fortune (or is it magic?) brings two dear friends together again at last.

Thanks, FrogNet: Back on the Web

I'm back home after a week in an Ohio state Park cabin we named 1950's House, after the PBS specials. There was no phone, which meant no internet--not even dialup! There was no dependable cell phone service, either, so the laptop was destined to remain unconnected. When in the fifties, do the fifties thing, so we made S'mores and toasted marshmallows on a real fire made from windfall wood. It was great!

We did, however, make a couple of drives to a nearby college town, where we, er, piggybacked on somebody's WiFi (FrogNet), so email was answered, forums were moderated, and I put up the posts of two great books I'd read, Chris Van Allsburg's latest, Probuditi, and Jane Yolen's World War II novel, The Devil's Arithmetic. If you missed them, check them out.

Trickster Sister: Probuditi! by Chris Van Allsburg

In two-time Caldecott Award-winner Chris Van Allsburg's latest, Probuditi! Calvin and best friend Rodney celebrate his birthday with tickets to the matinee show of famous magician Lomax the Magnificent. Back home, Calvin and Rodney try to while away the hours until his favorite birthday dinner by making a hypnotism machine just like the one Lomax used to make a stylishly-turned-out lady strut and peck like a chicken. Luckily, Mama has to go out and leaves in Calvin's care the perfect subject, his tattletale little sister Trudy. "None of your tricks, understand?" Mama warns as she departs.

With a spiral drawn on cardboard and erector-set parts, the hypnotism machine seems to work like, well, magic. With her eyes fixed on the whirling spiral, Calvin suggests to Trudy that she is now a dog, and Trudy's antics as an energetic puppy don't disappoint the two amateur magicians. Trudy barks at squirrels, howls, laps water from a bowl, snaps up the boys' ice cream cone in three bites, and licks Calvin's face appreciatively.

Fun's fun, but when it's time for Mama to return and make the birthday cake, Calvin and Rodney can't quite remember the magic word (probuditi!) to bring Trudy out of her spell. Panicking, the boys drag Trudy across town in a wagon to get help from Lomax, only to see him driving away from the theatre. Finally, they resort to dumping a bucket of water over Trudy's head just as Mama drives up, finding a dripping, screaming girl and an obviously guilty Calvin in the driveway.

Banished to his room Calvin sadly realizes that there'll be no spaghetti with meatballs and chocolate cake for him. Little sister Trudy dutifully brings up his birthday dinner--a peanut butter sandwich and a dill pickle.

"I turned you into a dog." Calvin started chuckling. "Had you running around on your hand and knees, barking and drooling."

Trudy waited for her brother to stop laughing... "How come I don't remember?"

"'Cause that's how it works," Calvin told her. "If you did, that'd mean you weren't hypnotized."

"Oh," said Trudy. She watched her brother chew unhappily on his peanut butter sandwich. "The spaghetti was really good," she told him. "So was the cake."

Calvin just grunted.

"Know what else I liked?" Trudy asked. "That ice cream I had this afternoon. Chocolate chip's my favorite."

Van Allsburg's nostalgic sepia-toned illustrations give the book a vintage 1950's look, while his varied angles and clear breaks between "scenes" have the signature cinemagraphic look of his Jumanji and The Polar Express. Probuditi is a wonderful example of a modern "tricking the trickster" tale which will bring forth gasps of surprised laughter with its justly satisfying surprise ending.