This book has a magical, lazy days of summer feel with kids Unfortunately, the talisman only grants half the wish, so learning how to work the system to get what they need is entertaining. Half Magic - 4 children find a magical talisman and their summer takes a turn for the better. I do need to grab them all because they are just worth owning and revisiting from time to time. There are 7 in this series, and only 2 were available in my library and I found a third later. These aren't all his books by any means, just the ones I have read and remember enough to write about.

He began writing his kids' books when he couldn't find anything else to read to his kids and wanted something for them (I wonder what he would think about today's massive children and YA market) His wife's last name was alphabetically immediately behind him, and he met her because of it in study hall at age 13. He provided a fanboy shout out to her in most of his works as he found her to be the best children's author of all time.Īs per my disclaimer above: Edward Eager would figure high on my list of magical books for children. I'm sure this was high praise for Eager, considering how he idolized her. And, more relevantly to those of us on r/fantasy, he wrote a handful of kids' books that are magical. He went on to write lyrics, radio scripts, and tv adaptations of opera classics. After doing a handful of these on children's authors, I decided to volunteer to do more in the same vein, so here's my standard blurb about why: I am a firm believer that good literature transcends age, so reading a classic children's lit book is just a good reading habit! Next, if you have kids in your life (of your own, related to you, if you're a teacher, etc), finding lots of great books to read to them, with them, or recommend to them is a great thing.įor anyone growing up in the 60s - 80s who frequented the children's section of their libraries and who loved magical books, more than likely you bumped up against Edward Eager's classic Half Magic and maybe a few of his others.Įdward Eager was a Harvard-educated playwright who left the illustrious school after writing a successful play.

So it's no surprise if you've been reading my author appreciations that I love children's lit. Here is a complete list of appreciations to date. This post is part of r/fantasy 's series of Author Appreciation posts, focusing on lesser known (or well known but lesser discussed, possibly forgotten) authors, as organized and masterminded by u/The_Real_JS.

Half magic by edward eager