Better Than Magic

by Marcia Calhoun Forecki

Edith Swann is smart, curious and creative. She is determined to be herself in spite of controlling parents. Her nightmare is the 7th grade bully, Dante Cooper. When Edith fi nds a magic mirror, she suddenly has the power to make her problems disappear and her parents proud. That is, until she accidentally sets free all her anger; her ¿Inner Eddie.¿ Before Edith can stop Eddie from destroying the whole neighborhood, the mirror breaks. Without magic, Edith needs all her wits, her strength and especially her friends to defeat Eddie. This is really a statement about growing up and the tribulation of doing so.

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lately, I've been going through a phase where I want to read a lot of middle grade books. There's just something about middle grade books that I find charming, and fun. No matter what's going on in the story line, the book usually fills me with hope and joy. I was recently looking through my backlog of middle grade books, and decided to start Better Than Magic. I'm so glad I did. It was such a short, cute read.

I think Better Than Magic is a great middle grade book that I honestly wish more people knew about. I thought the book was a fast paced, fun read. I sat down and read the whole thing in about an hour and a half because I couldn't put it down. I loved all of the quirky characters. I especially loved Edith's parents. They constantly made me chuckle with the weird things they did, like keep a schedule of excersizng, and signing Edith up for very odd things to learn.

Another thing I loved about Better Than Magic is that it teaches a great lesson to children. It teaches children to have empathy, and sympathy for others. When someone is being a jerk, instead of being mean back to that person, take a step back. It teaches them to contemplate, and put themselves in the other person's shoes, instead of having a knee jerk reaction that might do more good than harm. It also teaches to be careful what you wish for. Even if it seems like a good idea at the time, spontaneously doing certain things can have bad consequences when you don't think it through.

I really enjoyed Better Than Magic. It is intended for kids, but I am 28, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think most people would like this book and get something out of it, regardless of age. We all need reminders to be kinder to people every now and then, even if they're being difficult. I can't wait to read more of this author's other books.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a book after my own heart. While it was certainly written for a younger audience, the message presented is timeless. The book deals with middle school students, who are at an age where they are particularly vulnerable to misperceiving peers due to lack of understanding and the inability to empathize. The protagonist learns the hard way that our perceptions of people are not always correct. I loved this book because it demonstrates how important it is to try to understand others and show tolerance and respect towards people--and especially towards those that we don't get along with. Empathy is an important topic, and I think particularly important for the age group that this book was written for. This book does a good job of addressing these issues.

I also loved that the author has an obvious love of books, a love that her characters share. The characters are unashamed of loving books because they can see the magic that books enable us to experience--as one of the characters points out, we can live so many other lives that are different from our own through the use of books. And, to tie this love of books with the main theme of the story, I think books are one of the best ways that we can learn to empathize with others.

This was a fun, easy read that I would definitely recommend, especially to elementary and middle school aged children.

**I won this book through Goodreads giveaways

[Janin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for middle schoolers to read. I'll be having my oldest read it this summer. But it's also a good book for parents to read. I found that I'm a bit leddum and a bit moldum and I'm willing to be most parents are, or are at least looking for a good balance between (;