This Side of Magic

Keyholders #1

by Debbie Dadey, Marcia Thornton Jones

This Side of Magic is the first in a series of light fantasy chapter books set in Morgantown, a town on the border between the real world and the magical world, by the authors of the Publishers Weekly best selling BAILEY SCHOOL KIDS―a series of 50 books with more than 30 million copies sold! "You are my chosen apprentices," said Mr. Leery. Penny and Luke aren't sure they want to be apprentice Keyholders. A Keyholder's job, explains their neighbor, Mr. Leery, is to guard the border between the real world and the magical world. But when they meet their "links"―magical helpers from the other side of the border―they change their minds. Penny's link is Kirin, a sarcastic unicorn. Luke forms a link with a clumsy baby dragon named Dracula. And just in time! For the evil Queen of the Boggarts is determined to invade their world―and only the Keyholders and their links can stop her.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Chapter Books, Magic

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 28, 2009

About the author

Debbie Dadey is the author and co-author of 162 books for children, including the Mermaid Tales series from Simon and Schuster and the beloved Adventures of The Bailey School Kids from Scholastic. Ms. Dadey is a former teacher and librarian. Please like her at Facebook.com/debbiedadey.

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 5 star story for 7-10 year olds. It is exciting and adventurous. My daughter read it first and loved it. She couldn't put it down. I read it after. It is a cute and adventurous novel.

[Faria.706 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great! A good story about magic and monsters, two little kids embark on a great journey as keyholders. But they just don't know it yet. Well, they're in for surprises...

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

My grandchildren (male 10 and female 8) read this book at my house. The 8 year old did not find the book interesting, but the 10 years old wants to read the next book in the series.
I always read the book to know what they are reading. :)

[Ashly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was obsessed with this when I first read it

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the author of The Bailey School Kids comes a series of books with a touch of magic. Luke and Penny are best friends living in a seamlessly ordinary town. Kindly Mr. Leery lives next door to them and has been a friend for a long time. He even sat with them when they were ill. When Mr. Leery has to leave town very suddenly, he asks the two friends to watch over his cat and in return gives them each a bracelet with a key charm. Mr. Leery cautions the children to wear it for protection. The story was a very quick read and reminded me of the Magic Tree House series. Equal parts children bantering with magical adventure. This time with some talking animals too. I would recommend this book for children about seven to ten.

[Lee Födi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for readers who are just entering the world of Chapter Books. The story has some strong characters and the plot moves at a brisk pace. The illustrations by Adam Stower are quite good and I especially love the two maps at the beginning that show the two sides—the magic world and the real world. This book also has many of the strong fantasy tropes that will help readers make connections to other fantasy stories.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was pretty good. I can understand why the kids sort of hesitated, like they didn't really want the monsters to be killed, but they wanted to stop them still. They hesitated and thought things over.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Modern day fantasy, early readers 7+
Cute story that has excitement and adventure and keeps the reader interested. The story is easy to read and has a good story line that has the reader wanting more and luckily there are more in the series. I think young readers will enjoy this series.

[Stef · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a cute read for 7-10 year olds that I read for a children's lit class.

[SmokeyPookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kids liked this series at ages 6 and 8. I liked it a lot, but maybe more than they did because Caitlin and I met the author and have the whole set autographed by her. She was extremely nice.

[Amy Nielsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good easy book for seven year olds. Maybe not for reading on their own but that's just a reading level thing.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gwen would have given it four stars. I took one away because it was awful to read aloud.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book setting up a new series. The introduction to the magical world in this one is enough to make me want to continue the series.

[Bailie Govek · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read this first book, I felt that it was a little scary. I am older now, I think I will like book two because there is an elf on the cover.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that Bruno is reading fluently enough to handle simple chapter books himself, he is eating up this Keyholder series.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

mediocre

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 10 year old son LOVED it.

[Terry]

Go to the Reading Tub to read our review. You can add yours there, too.