Magic Spell

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.