For some reason, I was sure that Edward Eager was another British author writing fantasy for kids midway through the 20th century. Most of that's true, but he's actually an American, born in Ohio, who lived in New York City and then Connecticut, where he wrote the series that this book begins, and others. He was primarily inspired by L. Frank Baum's 'Oz' books, the quintessentially American great fantasy book series, but also by the works of E. Nesbit, whose works he regarded as the peak of children's fiction. The kids in this book love Nesbit's work too.

There are seven books in the 'Tales of Magic' series and they came pretty quickly, from this opener in 1954 to the last of them, Seven-Day Magic, in 1962, a couple of years before Eager died. Like the 'Oz' books, they're not linear, the third being a direct sequel to the first and the fourth similarly to the second but set a generation later. The fifth book features a different set of characters, as does the pairing of the sixth and the seventh. What's more, this first book is a novel made up of a set of seven linked short stories, or that's how it read to me. While it makes sense to read them in order, it felt like I could have dived into them in any order, after the first, and enjoyed them just as much.

The first, of course, is where we learn what's going on and it's a neat gimmick that's so simple that someone really should have thought of it before 1954 but didn't; making Eager the father of a line of books that follow a similar template, where magic exists but follows rules. You could extend the concept back to the genies in the 'Arabian Nights', but this is thoroughly contemporary, reading in style like it's brand-new except for the grounding in long-gone culture. The gimmick here revolves around a coin or medallion that Jane finds in a crack in the street. It grants wishes, but just half of them. As such books go, the characters have to figure out that rule, often using it to fix what went wrong with the previous wish, until they can start using it properly.

Jane is the eldest of four children and she's nominally in charge of them, along with Mark, who's the next oldest and only boy. After him comes Katherine and then Martha. Of course, that's just a childhood pecking order. Their mother is really in charge, because their father is dead, and, when mum's at work at the newspaper, Miss Bick takes care of them and she's in charge. In reality, they run free, exploring the world as they will in the way that kids did generations ago. I grew up in the countryside, so had quite a lot of freedom, but I'm also a grandfather of ten and none of them do. Of course, my parents had even more and that's the timeframe in which this is set.

They're all together when Jane finds the medallion, thinking it's a nickel, and they figure out that it has magic powers when Jane, if only because absolutely nothing is happening, wishes for a fire, and right away they hear sirens because a playhouse has gone up in flames. Just in case of doubt, their mum borrows it for cab fare and, wishing herself home from Aunt Grace and Uncle Edwin's, suddenly finds herself on the side of the road. She thinks she's losing it, but the kids, especially at the point that their cat starts talking gibberish, start realising the rules behind this magic.

So they test their theory, the clincher being a wish to be transported magically to a desert island. Desert, yes. Island, no. The medallion grants half of each wish and, with the logic of children, that means that they have to wish for double what they want in order for half of double to equal what they wanted to begin with. Which, of course, is tricky and that's why we have a book. It's a superb idea, a simple yet thoroughly effective gimmick, and Eager has much fun exploring ramifications. And, while there is a message here of sorts, fun is always the point. Eager surely borrowed that from the 'Oz' books.

I mentioned that 'Half Magic' feels contemporary in style but not in culture. What I mean by that is that it's a very easy read but not a dumbed-down one. I have no doubt that kids today wouldn't have any problem reading this prose. It would come as naturally to them as anything published in the last five years, which is no given with books published before their grandparents were born. This series began when my mother was nine and ended nine years before I was born. 1954 should seem like ancient history to even my eldest grandkid.

Where that's apparent is in the culture and Eager touches on culture rather a lot. Sometimes it's in references, such as a couple to 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', with characters quoting the "six impossible things before breakfast" line and talking about a "tulgey wood". The Little Match Girl from Hans Christian Andersen gets a nod too. More often, though, Eager, refers to real books by name and that's a joy to me, especially working this project, because I can see what Eager saw as timeless classics worthy of being read by all children.

I know about 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' and have it scheduled in already. That and 'A Boy's King Arthur' and the works of T. H. White come into play here when the children wish themselves back to "the days of old when knights were bold" and face off against Morgan Le Fay. I know who Little Nell and Amy March are, though I haven't read their respective books. I've heard of 'Five Little Peppers and How They Grew' but not what it was, but hadn't heard of 'Hildegarde's Harvest' or 'The Ingoldsby Legends'. Just in case, they were written by Laura E. Richards and, via a pen name, Richard Harris Barham respectively.

While I knew of most of the books and film stars like Barbara La Marr and Charlie Chaplin, I had no idea whatsoever about the games. Eager mentions at least four and I've only even heard of one, a game I have no idea how to play. That one's Fan Tan, which is an ancient Chinese game. The others are I Doubt It, Old Witch and Statuary. It turns out that I Doubt It is a card game often best known as Cheat, while the other two may or may not be playground games. It's in these details that show just how different these kids' world is compared to kids today.

Cultural notes aside, I adored this book. It's easy and quick to read but carries plenty of substance. There's even a mildly serious subplot unfolding in the background. While the kids adventure with wishes, mum's on her own, a single mother of four, until Mr. Smith enters the picture, through one of the kids' wishes. He proves to be highly accepting of concepts like magic and stepkids. He's very cool indeed, but then again he runs a bookstore. How many of mum's boyfriends can claim that? The kids won't have to wait for books like 'The Enchanted Castle' to become available at the library in the future!

Best of all, the book ends very well indeed. I won't spoil how but Eager does something seemingly throwaway that actually carries a heck of a wallop. I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for the other books in the series, especially 'Magic by the Lake', the third of the seven, which serves as a direct sequel to this with the same characters at around the same age. ~~ Hal C F Astell