Reading is Magic: 6. Potions, Spells, Charms and Curses

Magic potions are always fun. There seems to be a whole industry built around potion kits for young children. When I was a child I spent hours in my rural surrounds collecting things to make potions and clay objects. 

So what is a potion? A potion is a liquid "that contains medicine, poison, or something that is supposed to have magical powers." 

Not that many picture books feature them.

This one is new.

A  Recipe for Magic Potion by Jack Henseleit and Natasja Horne

This dazzling story may seem like a set of instructions on how to brew a magic potion, the ingredients of which are familiar – mud, a leaf, some sand. But as the story unfolds, two children let their imaginations run wild as they take the reader on a glorious, lyrical journey outside. 

These are older.

Potion Commotion  by Peter Bently and Sernur Isik

Little witch Betty makes a big mess when she tries her hand at cooking.
Into the cauldron goes everything from strawberry jam to slices
of ham! Betty's potion keeps on growing and growing and soon
it's spreading all over town. But when a hungry dragon arrives
on the scene, can Betty's brew save the day?

Princess Priscilla  by Stacey Apeitos and Beth Norling

When the dragon wakes up looking for breakfast Princess Priscilla knows how to fend him off.  She feeds him with pancakes slathered with sleeping potion.

A very short chapter book

Olive is "ordinary" and loves science. But Beatrix is a witch!  In this first book, Beatrix ruins Olive and Eddie's latest science project. So Olive and Eddie play a prank on Bea. They rig up a bucket of spiders over her bedroom door. But when the spiders crawl into one of Bea's magic potions...WHAM! 

And some longer chapter books

And while thinking about potions, you could add spells and curses. A spell is a word, phrase, or form of words supposed to have magic power, whereas a curse is an utterance that is meant to inflict harm or punishment.

Start with Spells by Emily Gravatt 

Once upon a time, there was a frog who wanted to be a pirate...or a handsome prince...or anything aside from a small green frog, really. When he discovers a very mixed-up book of spells, he decides to take matters into his own hands. But magic spells are tricky, and frog will transform himself into a whole menagerie of things before he reaches his fairy tale ending.

Then: