Black and Blue Magic

by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

This now classic book was first published by Atheneum in 1966. It was selected by Scholastic Books for inclusion in the Arrow Book Club.

Twelve-year-old Harry Houdini Marco is awkward and clumsy, bearing little resemblance to his magician namesake, until he acquires the gift of flight.

From back cover:
"You must be very careful Harry!" The strange Mr. Mazzeeck warns before he leaves. "this magic oil is extremely powerful. And re,member: no one must ever find out!"

"Find out what?" Harry wonders now. Carefully he rubs the oil into his shoulders, and feels a strong tingling sensation. He rushes to the mirror and sees them-spreading out behind him, from his head to his ankles!
"Wings!" Harry gasps. As he fans them slowly, he feels himself lift off the ground.
"whoopee!" he shouts. "I can fly!"


Literary awards: Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (1968)

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Middle Grade, Magic, Novels

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Zilpha Keatley Snyder was an American author of books for children and young adults. Three of Snyder's works were named Newbery Honor books: The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm. She was most famous for writing adventure stories and fantasies.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the thousands of books that I've read in my life time, this is the oldest one in my personal library. It has the honor of being the OLDEST BOOK that I recall reading. I read it when I was in the 4th grade, circa 1966. It was amazing (for a nine year old boy). I've kept it all these years because it was my favorite book of my early childhood.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read and adored Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s Black and Blue Magic as a child nearly 50 years ago, just as I read and adored her The Egypt Game and her The Velvet Room. Rereading at nearly age 60, the tale of clumsy but resourceful Harry Houdini Marco hasn’t aged a bit. Still — dare I say it? — magical all these decades later.

[Thomas Flowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the mention of the title of this book a few weeks ago made me so excited to re-read it. I had really forgotten all about it and only remembered it vaguely from when I was little and my mom read it to me, but I remembered how reading the book felt. And as it turned out, it still feels wonderful to read it. It's the sort of book that awakens my imagination and makes me smile with the pure delightfulness of the plot. And I can also appreciate now (as I probably didn't as a child) the wonderful themes throughout and the superb quality of the writing.

[boxer_dogs_dance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another favorite from my early teens.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a reason Snyder, and this book, are so popular with both children and adults (including educators). Well, multiple reasons. The kids are ordinary kids, like you and your classmates. The adventures are believable and almost prosaic... they could happen to you. The themes are neither didactic nor hidden in allegory. The writing seems effortless and frank, but is often lovely. There's humor, affection, friendship... and there're some bits that aren't so nice. And the secondary characters are real people, too.

"Miss Thurgood's hairdo was one of the things Mr. Brighton had a saying about. He said with a hairdo like that one, you'd have to stand on your tiptoes to spit."

"Examining your wounds is a good way to start feeling sorry for yourself.... [Harry] usually thought about his father.... Nowadays Harry could feel even more miserable by thinking about what a disappointment he would be to Dad if he were still alive."

"It was as if the island [Alcatraz] were still alive with the misery and loneliness and despair that had lived there for so many years."

Avl. openlibrary.
---
Reread.
This time I noticed how much San Francisco itself is almost a character. If you remember the Bay Area of the 1950s or '60s, you might get a kick out of this. I'm going to have to look up Fleishhacker Zoo; I never heard of it.

"... this morning Harry didn't waste any time brooding about the boring old subject of his clumsiness. He had better things to think about. Remembering about last night was almost exciting as living it had been. In fact, every time he thought about what it had been like last night, up there over the city, he felt as if something had just pulled up a drawstring on his stomach."

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a kid and recently revisited it. As it turns out, while I do not have a photographic/eidetic memory or anything like that, I DO have a very good memory for the names of books I read when I was a kid (well, most of them) and so occasionally I like to go back and take a look at them ("M Is For Mischief" and "The Enormous Egg" will no doubt eventually get into my reading pile).

This is a charming book, easy to read and follow but with a surprisingly subtle hand at making its overall points. Harry (Houdini) Marco - son of a now-deceased stage magician, helps his single mom run a boarding house in San Francisco. Harry is clumsy and awkward but a good kid in general and so when he helps a strange, gnomish man who lost his suitcase on the bus, he is rewarded - but the man (Mr. Tarzack Mazzeeck) is an employee of the A.A. Comus Company (and a former member of A.O.A.T.S - "The Ancient Order of Authentic and Traditional Sorcerers") and so the reward takes the shape of bottle of magical unguent that allows Harry to grow wings and fly, a spell that can be activated and deactivated. And so Harry spends what he had previously expected to be a boring summer instead flying all around, learning lessons, recusing people and generally being an inspiring force for good, when he isn't crash-landing.

I had remembered the broad strokes of the book but not the details. Specifically, I remembered how I reacted when the end of the book approaches and Harry realizes that the ointment is almost gone - and I remember taking something from the philosophical attitude that Harry adopts, as crushed as I was. And the final revelation that all the physical exercising of his wings had bulked up Harry's physique and made him more fit and dexterous also stayed with me. Also, I remember thinking of this book when I eventually read about the X-MEN superhero mutant Angel, who had similar wings. Read as an adult, there is some cute bits of kid's writing ("for Pete squeaks" substituted for "For Pete's sake"), some solid invention (Harry's improvised flying costume made from draperies essentially makes him look like a classical angel decked out in robes) and I like how the book acknowledges that kids can get depressed (Harry "worked himself up into a case of the blues") over not feeling good enough, while still playing that detail lightly.

But there's a lot of heart here, as well as a nice sense for young readers of a world larger than themselves, of thoughts they might have that are deeper and more grand, of the less obvious and the awesome hiding in plain sight. A specific detail that the wings evoke in Harry a kind of pride and fascination is subtly twinned with the intended and inadvertent positive affects he has on the world around him (inspiring a man to quit drinking, inspiring a neighborhood shrew to be a better person, rescuing little kids). And Harry is written as benign enough that even though he scares away a woman who poses a rival remarriage threat to his mom, he feels bad about it afterwards.

A really solid kid's book - glad I stumbled across it as a kid, glad I reread it as an adult.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snyder delivers another magical summer adventure in this third novel - following upon Season of Ponies and The Velvet Room - which follows the story of young Harry Houdini Marco, who is given the gift of magical wings. Calling himself "Humpty Harry" because of his clumsiness, Harry lives with his mother in the boarding house she runs in San Francisco. Facing a lonely summer because all the neighborhood children have moved away, and longing for a father, Harry finds himself the recipient of a most astonishing gift when Mr. Mazzeeck, a strange man that he helps one day on the bus, comes to stay at the boarding house. Adventure follows adventure in a summer that Harry will never forget...

An entertaining fantasy for intermediate readers, Black and Blue Magic explores one of the quintessential childhood fantasies: the ability to fly. Snyder manages to convincingly weave together the fantastic elements of her plot with the more "mundane" family story, and the result is quite satisfying. Although most of Snyder's early novels were illustrated by Alton Raible, Black and Blue Magic was one of the exceptions, with black and white drawings by Gene Holtan.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this delightful book when I was in the Fourth Grade. Pulled it off the library shelf at Nightengale Elementary School, Massena, NY because something about the title just drew me in. It was not a class assignment and so I never wrote a book report on it (at least, I don't remember ever doing so). And, if memory also serves me right, this was the first fictional book I ever read, completely on my own, that was not part of some classroom project. Looking back on this minimal achievement, I can see why it appealed so much. A lonely child given a magical gift.... something we all yearned for in our youth. It has been over 35 years since I first turned the cover of this delightful tale... yet still, it stays with me.

[David Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book by accident when I was a child. It wasn't one of the mysteries I was expecting. Didn't follow any of the formulas that had hooked me into reading. But it was the first book that I remember liking for more than entertainment.

Recently I reread, reading to my young son. It was even better than in memory.

This book would make a brilliant film. It should happen, and that film should be directed by one of the greats:
Brad Bird (Iron Giant), Peter Chelsom (The Mighty), Gary Winick (Charlotte's Web); Niki Caro (Whale Rider); Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, Fantastic Mr. Fox); Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Rushmore)....

[Chas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think my brother gave me this book. I really need to go back and read it again, but I remember dreaming about this book for a long time after I was finished. The setting and feel of the story are so real. Above all the fantasy and sci-fi I read in school, this book sits on top.

[Mary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written years ago by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, who later turned out to be a wife of a professor at my university. But before this, she was/is an amazing author I started reading when I was 8 years old. This is about a boy protagonist, but this did NOT stop me loving this book. I have 'loaned' this one out to many little kids, literally having to BEG for it back. I met Zilpha Keatley Snyder, while in graduate school at Sonoma State University having lunch. It was a top honor for me to talk to one of my childhood hero writers, who's stories not only entertain, they educated, and they were wonderfully written with quality characteristics. For example: she completes a map of the whole area that she developing her characters in. In the case of Black and Blue Magic, this included a full scale map of the streets of San Francisco, the bus routes to and from Fleishhacker Zoo, which is off of the sunset district on the farthest end of SF! She wanted to make sure that she knew how her protagonist flew to the zoo and back again! To me this was amazing concept of writing, to actually take serious time for a children's book to map out the location to make it as 'real' for the child as possible. I have read this book many, many times but the first was in 1967.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

How could I resist when my brother-in-law urged me to read this book, naming it as one of his favorite childhood reads?

It did not disappoint me.

Harry Houdini Marco is astounded to get to know one of his mother's boarders, Mr. Mazzeeck, who not only turns out to be a traveling salesman from another galaxy but also a wizard. Mr. Mazzeeck has to leave but, before he goes, he gifts Harry with a bottle of magical potion, and, when the boy tries it out, he grows wings and can fly.

So much fun.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this when I was a kid. It is probably lingering out there in the children's section of the EPFL, but I don't want to read it again. I ruined the Boxcar Children for myself, and I want my memories of this to remain unsullied. This book is a twist on the old "magic potion" story, where a clutzy kid with problems finds a potion that, used properly, gives him wings. He's kind of like The Greatest American Hero in that he doesn't know how to use his powers, or the wings, and winds up black and blue from his adventures.
In the end, the wings aren't the most important thing, but if I said what it was, what would be your motivation to read the book?
And as a kid, I thought having wings like a giant bird would be THE COOLEST. Now though, I'm sure they'd make your clothes fit poorly.

[Gwen Haaland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am referring to the 1966 version of "Black and Blue Magic."
I remember being brave enough to sneak up to the hayloft over the art barn at sleep away camp to read "Black and Blue Magic!" A magic potion enables the main character to sprout wings and fly for about 6 hours before the wings disappear and the potion had to be reapplied after the boy's Mom is asleep each night to regain the giant wings. I had lots of dreams about flying afterward! However, there was a lot more to this book than mere flying.

I loved this book so much as a child, that I read it to my own children when they were old enough to appreciate it.

[Wendi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was an interesting read. The book was written in the 60's, and so it is fascinating to read about a boy growing up at that time period. Not that it had any political feel. Just a world without TV, phones, internet, and video games permeating the environment. I think my 9 year old son will enjoy this book.

[Arlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. I found it in a used bookstore and bought because it had a boy with wings on the cover. It was a trifle old when I got it as a girl (back when dinosaurs and we dodged mammoths on the way to school), but only real sign was the prevalence of traveling salesmen. But I lived in a rural area, maybe they were more common in urban areas.

Harry Houdini Marco has an exciting name; one his father hoped he would live up to. Unfortunately, Harry's father is dead and Harry himself might be the most boring 12-year old in the world. At least, he thinks so. And he has a long, boring summer to look forward to. Until an unusual traveling salesman comes to stay at his mother's boarding house, Mr. Mazeek.

He does a favor for Mr. Mazeek, who gives Harry a small bottle of ointment. He tells Harry to apply the ointment and recite a poem. When Harry does so, he grows wings. Harry's summer doesn't look boring anymore.

While the wings are fantastic, Harry still has to deal with the practicalities of learning to fly and flying at night in San Francisco, like what to wear? It's a charming book about how just a little magic can make a real difference. And sometimes the magic is other people.

[Mark Buxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

My name is Harry Houdini Marco, and when my dad was alive, he always hoped I'd become a great magician. I've been told that someday I'll have a special kind of magic. That's pretty funny considering how clumsy and nonathletic I am, but I wish there was something magical I could do to help my mom find a new husband. I was ready for another boring summer when Mr. Mazeeck took a room at our boarding house. He said he was a traveling salesman, and he never let his suitcase out of his sight. On the day he left, he shared the truth about his past and surprised me with a gift. Many strange things happened that summer, and I wondered if they could somehow help me with the Plan.

This book shares a feel-good story about love, hope, and opportunities. Harry lacks confidence and doesn’t have any close friends. His main quest for the summer is to help his mom find love and a new husband. The boarding house setting in a small neighborhood allows the author to introduce some unique, eccentric characters. Mr. Mazeeck is the strangest and most important, but his appearance in the plot is short-lived. Harry needs to keep the gift a secret and spends much of his time exploring the San Francisco area. However, situations arise that challenge him to make tough decisions, but those choices have unexpectedly positive consequences. In the end, Harry’s mom shares a surprising truth that bodes well for the future. Overall, this book is entertaining despite its lack of suspense. Its message will make you feel better and leave you with a smile.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! Harry was charming and realistic, even if the metaphor was a bit heavy handed.

[Sara Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

😌😇

[Skye Elder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book ended perfectly.

I loved it!

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the sixties, my brother owned a copy of this book. That doesn't say much until you realise that he was dyslexic at a time and in a place when that was not at all understood or helped, and he read this book of his own free will. I managed to read the first few chapters, he caught me and said "That's MY book, give it back!" and I did. (Ironically, I began to read at age 3 and haven't stopped yet.)

Fast forward about 40 years. I've just read the whole book, and I see why he worked his way through it, even though his Scolastic edition of those days had no illustrations. (His philosophy was like Alice's: "What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?") This book is good fun. It's a light read, but there's a lot more in it than just "1960s kid's book." Harry has to learn how to fly his magic, his life, and his joy. Being a klutz myself from birth--physically and socially--I could relate to his struggles, and I found myself rooting for him. I also like the fact that there are no cringe-making "crises"; even the problem characters are handled with a light touch. Ms Snyder's protagonists tend to be heroines of Harry's age, but this book works in every sense.

I first read Snyder's rather more "esoteric" (for the time) books such as The Witches of Worm, The Egypt Game etc. This is much lighter,with less emphasis on the psychological, and I really enjoyed it.

[Leslie Gay · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful, charming and uplifting tale! What a delight to re-read it again, a few decades later!
I remember reading this in middle school and being completely captivated by the magic and thrill of the story. Now I catch many more of the small nuances, especially those around the human nature of the characters, and the kindnesses of the author in how she describes them. As native to the Bay Area (Marin and San Francisco) I also got one heck of a kick out of the descriptions of my fair city - especially since I remember the old Zoo!
It was a true treat to read this again and will officially commence a re-read of many of my favorite books from my early tween years. It feels like this is just the time of year for more small scale, charming and ultimately sweet stories. If you also read this in youth, do your self a huge favor and re-read it again!
**other than Ruth Chew as I've already got her books all set to go, what other authors do you really remember from your own formative reading years in middle school? I'd love the suggestions!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, my mom recommended this book to me because she read it as a kid. So I read it, and I loved it. I think i also had a connection to it because I am from San Francisco, where the book is set, and the special nostalgia for Fleishhacker pool, Playland at the beach, and the old zoo is something everyone from San Francisco has. This book captures childhood for me in so many ways.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 4th grade teacher read this out loud to my class. She would read a chapter at a time and I couldn't wait to get to school the next day to hear what would happen next. This is not a well known book, but such a fun read aloud with kids from 4th-6th grade. I still love it.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very much a book for children. It is about a boy who gets magical wings for a summer and how he uses them. It is absolutely adorable and fun read. If you have kids read it to them or have them read it.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zilpha Keatly Snyder was one of my favorite authors as a child. And I still enjoy her books today. This one is about a boy who's loyalty and hard work are rewarded with the gift of flight (but only for one summer). Just the right balance between magic and real life.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books when I was young. I kept it (pretending it was lost!) WAY beyond the library due date. Several years into our marriage, I found out it was one of my husband's absolute favorites, too!

[Mark Dellenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a child and loved it! Don't know why it popped into my head the other day. I will check out from the library to see if it held up over time. The fact we have a copy in 2012 is a good sign. I thought I'd have to ILL it to re-read!

[Ferne Merrylees · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story reminded me of vanilla spiders and the smell of summer when I was kid visiting my grandparents. The hero is the rare type of boy who used to be more common fifty or more years ago: kind, selfless, brave and thoughtful. A thoroughly enjoyable book that inspires one to be just like Harry.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

4/18/18 $2.99 for Kindle.