Reading is Magic: Magic Everyday Items

While finding books about wishes, I realised that often the wish comes via some item...a pebble in Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and a diamond when  Templeton Gets his Wish. Of course, many wishes come via a wand, a spell, a potion or a powder, but there are other more unusual givers of wishes and everyday items that provide the magic. A magic item is any object that has magical powers inherent in it. These may act on their own or be the tools of the person or being whose hands they fall into. Magic items are commonly found in both folklore and modern fantasy.

There are pots,

quilts,

carpets,

cloaks,

There is a magic cloak in The Twelve Dancing Princesses , a fairytale, but they are also in the Japanese folktale, Momotaro, Harry Potter and King Arthur, so stories about invisibility cloaks have been around for hundreds or possibly thousands of years.

pencils,

 crayons,

paintbrushes,

and mirrors,

but, the device could be almost anything ... a key, a ticket, beans (Jack and the Beanstalk) yarn (Extra Yarn), an ice block stick (Rosie's Magic Horse), a pen (Philomena Wonderpen), a biscuit tin (Elsie and the Magic Biscuit Tin), a ring (Strega Nonna's Magic Ring), a carpetbag (Mary Poppins) shoes (The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes), shoelaces (Magic Shoelaces), a hat (The Magic Hat), a lamington (Possum Magic), or even a book (Polly Diamond and the Magic Book). There are sure to be others tooth I have missed.

Young readers need to read stories with magical items that do good while they are young, because as they get older and read longer texts the magical items may not be only for good and they do need some precursors before reading the King Arthur legends, the Greek Myths and fantasies such as Harry Potter, The Hobbit and  Lord of the Rings.

6th July Hop a Park Day

Parks play a crucial role in enhancing our quality of life; they offer a refuge from the urban environment and provide a space for physical activities and mental rejuvenation.

Parks are vital spaces for community gathering, relaxation, and recreation and they give everyone an opportunity to connect to nature, not only on the first Saturday in July, but everyday.

Not sure about the name of the day. It is not an idiom in Australia, but I can't believe I haven't written about parks before. There is so much to write about and so many books to explore. There's national parks, theme parks, skate parks, recreational parks, adventure parks, sensory parks...

I don't propose to write about all of these types of parks, but rather to share some books that I like that highlight what may happen at the park.

Of course you can go there to play

You can walk the dog

These two books by Anthony Browne offer multiple perspectives on what happens at the park and there is much to talk about when you share these books.

You can take a child to the park

Both of these show just what can happen on an outing to a park.

The story can be set in a well known park

The Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney

The ducks walk past a bottle tree, through some gates, and along a road. Then little Alexander falls down the hole and the people work together to get him up and out! 

Boston Public Gardens

Mrs. Mallard was sure that the pond in the Boston Public Gardens would be a perfect place for her and her eight ducklings to live.  The problem was how to get them there through the busy streets of Boston.

The Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

A true story about Bob Redman, a New York City boy who built a series of intricate treehouses hidden in Central Park. 

It might be a park where anything can happen (imaginary or otherwise)

When Leonard takes a shortcut through the park, he finds an egg and takes it home, where it hatches into a lizard (or so Leonard thinks). Leonard names his new pet Buster and takes him all around the city: on the subway, to the library, to a baseball game, and more.

Emily Forbes finds a rock in a nearby park, but she has no idea that it is the egg of a prehistoric creature. She calls it Thing. 

The parks could inspire change

When a girl moves to a new town, she finds a place called Butterfly Park. But when she opens the gate, there are no butterflies. Determined to lure the butterflies in, the girl inspires her entire town to help her.

We Go to the Park is a beautiful, lyrical meditation on going to the park to play-which extends into a reflection on life itself.

A Park Connects Us
An ode to urban parks and the many ways they connect us to community and nature. This picture book excursion through a city park invites readers to discover how shared green spaces bring us together.

Fatima Khazi is excited for the weekend. Her family is headed to a local state park for their first camping trip! The school week might not have gone as planned, but outdoors, Fatima can achieve anything.

So many reasons to go to a park!

Reading is Magic: Wishes

Who needs a wish giver?

Leading on from genies there is the magic of wishes. They allow us to hope for something even if in reality we know it is not likely to happen. 

Stories about wishes and how they can be used go far back as they appear in many folktales and fairytales that were first told, not written.

In many of the most popular stories about wishing, three wishes are granted. This allows for the chance to make a rash or “greedy” wish which may reflect the less than good side of a character’s nature; the chance to try to put that right by being more modest (which usually ends in something even worse) and a final wish where things go back to the beginning – more or less. 

The process leaves the wish-maker wiser and supposedly happier.  They have had a chance to experience their dream and found it has just as many downsides as the reality they know so well. 

The first story I remember from my childhood that had wishes in it was The Fisherman and the Three Wishes,  a Grimm fairytale. I didn't know about Aladdin until much later. When I started teaching nearly every teacher I knew was serialising The Magic Faraway Tree  or The Adventures of the Wishing-Chair by Enid Blyton to their class...plenty of wish fulfilment there.

When I started postgraduate study in Children's Literature I was introduced to Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig and despite being a product of its time, it is still a favourite.

These two books give you versions of the story about the fisherman and his wife.

This is a folktale from Japan where a poor flower seller drops his leftover flowers into the sea as a gift for the Dragon King. What does he get in return? A little snot-nosed boy--with the power to grant wishes! 

King Midas and the Golden Touch is a Greek myth where a King wishes everything he touches would turn to gold only to discover it is not as good as he thought it would be.

 

These four newer stories have three wishes to be granted!

Then three, where animals do the wishing.

And a short chapter book for those who want something longer.

Newly-qualified fairy, Cobweb is on a mission – she has lost a wish and must get it back! Dickon finds it and there is no limit to the number of times a lost wish may be used.