A Fair Trade Book
Title: The Wednesday
Wizard
Author: Sherryl Jordan
Date: 1991
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 0-590-46759-X
Length: 149 pages
Quote: “Beware of Spy Wednesday! Beware of the large town!
And, Weasel, most of all, beware of the dragon!”
Denzil, whom the village wisewoman calls Weasel, is about to
travel through time (and possibly between universes) from a world something
like a medieval English village to a world something like a modern city. “The
dragon” in her vision will later be identified with a train. Denzil is a
wizard’s foster son and apprentice, and has some real magical power, but not,
of course, enough to keep him out of comical misadventures in a twentieth-century-type
environment.
The use of this book is, so far as I can see, strictly
entertainment. It’s not real history; it has little to tell us about our real
world today either. It’s merely funny. Denzil, who can change himself into any
other animal in a moment and avoids trouble by turning into a flea, was bored
(possibly a bit hyperactive) in his own world and might almost be happier in
the twentieth century watching science fiction movies.
The Wednesday Wizard is
recommended to all readers who want a short, easy book to chortle over. The
main characters are children but some of the comedic appeal seems especially
meant for adults; the vocabulary is accessible to determined third grade
readers, but the more history you’ve read, the funnier the story is. So, if
you’re looking for a good clean laugh, with this book it hardly matters whether
you’re nine or ninety. It’s hard to suspend disbelief—this is one long
shaggy-dog story—but some readers think the comedy is worth that effort.
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