Everyday Magic

This lively story reads very easily and does not feel as if it took a long time to write. Hogwarts references, conscious or not, abound, with its bespectacled nine-year-old orphan hero Alfie Blackstack having to cope with a bewildering new world of magic. This is after he has been sent to live with two witch aunts in Switherbroom Hall, set in the remote village of Little Snoddington. His only friend is Calypso, a circus girl and trapeze artist his own age. Up against them is an evil Head Witch who is also allowed moments of black humour. A gaggle of old, mean-minded village elders complete the picture, including the vicar’s wife, described here as a ‘sour-faced old grunion.’ The dictionary definition of this word is ‘a small silvery food fish.’ Its slang derivation, according to Urban Dictionary, is more startling.
This is the first children’s book from an author who has already won prizes in the adult market. In this story she rather over-does the sort of humour still making good use of farts and stink-bombs. She also periodically pokes fun at various aspects of the physical decline associated with old age. Roald Dahl did this too, but some time ago and perhaps this type of fun has had its time now. But there are plenty of other moments when the narrative runs smoothly with enough fresh invention to keep readers happy. Setting much of the story within a circus, as in so many past children’s book, raises the question of what exactly this might mean to modern children who have never visited such places given that traditional circuses along with animal acts hardly exist anymore. They may still enjoy this book though, and now the author has got into her stride where young readers are concerned who knows she may come up next time with an even better one.