Edward Eager’s Half Magic is a fantastic book about four kids who discover a magic talisman and then have all sorts of adventures. (You may remember Matt Blum’s excellent review, which inspired me to read it.) It was followed by …
Continue ReadingThe paradox of book reviews is that it’s hard to know whether you’d be interested in a book unless you know something about it first; but quite often a review tells you more than you’d want to know so you …
Continue ReadingWhen Magic: The Gathering was introduced in 1993, it was full of classic fantasy tropes like fireball spells, giants, goblins and elves. Naturally, as subsequent sets were released, publisher Wizards of the Coast introduced more original spells and characters, and …
Continue ReadingI’m on vacation in Las Vegas this week, but I had to file this post after seeing the wonderful Penn & Teller show last night. You may know about the amazing and irreverent magic duo (Penn Jillette is the giant …
Continue ReadingNo, that’s not a typo. Graeme Base’s newest book Enigma can teach kids about cryptography, but it deserves an extra "crypto" for the clever way the subject is hidden in a story about magic, friendship, and family. Bertie Badger visits his grandfather, the retired magician Gadzooks the Great, and learns that he and the other […]
Continue ReadingToday, July 31st, marks the 43rd anniversary of the birth of Jo Rowling, better known to anyone who’s been near a bookstore in the past 11 years as "J.K." Without her, the world would be a far poorer place today. Even if you have never read the Harry Potter books, even if you don’t like […]
Continue ReadingWhen Robert Asprin passed away suddenly six eight weeks ago, I had a flood of memories about his Myth Adventures series. I don’t remember how old I was when I first read Another Fine Myth—probably 10 or 11—but I remember laughing at it and wanting to read more. Fortunately for me, the books kept coming, […]
Continue ReadingJane, Mark, Katherine, and Martha are four perfectly ordinary kids living in a perfectly ordinary Ohio town in the 1920s. They love to read books, particularly the fantasy novels of E. Nesbit, and bemoan the fact that nothing fantastical ever happens to them. Then one day Jane happens upon a perfectly ordinary nickel on the […]
Continue ReadingA few weeks ago I took the GeekMom on a Disney Cruise (sans Geek-kids…!) – is that geeky enough? (Before you answer….we sat at a dining table with a couple celebrating their 37th! wedding anniversary, and they chose a Disney Cruise…) This was the first time away for just GeekMom and I (for more than […]
Continue ReadingThis 2006 movie has recently become a cult hit in our family. Two Victorian-era stage magicians – Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman — compete for fame, fortune and Scarlett Johansson. Michael Caine is the old guy who knows all the secrets. And David Bowie (!) is Nikola Tesla (!), who takes on an assignment to […]
Continue ReadingDoing magic with your kids is one of the more excellent things you can do as a father. For one thing, kids are a truly appreciative audience, and if you’re an amateur like me, probably the only truly appreciative audience you will ever actually get! Also, kids can be a tough audience, because they haven’t […]
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