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| Wizard at Work | 
 enlarge | Author: Vivian Vande Velde
Publisher: Magic Carpet Books
Category: Book
List Price: $5.95
Buy New: $0.02
You Save: $5.93 (100%)
Buy New/Used from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  (6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 586945
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0152053093
EAN: 9780152053093
ASIN: 0152053093
Publication Date: August 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The wizard has big summer plans: to garden, to fish, and to nap. The only thing better would be if he had someone nice to share the days with. But the only people who show up want him to rescue yet another princess, lift the usual vile curse, confront a fearsome ghost, deal with a pack of magical hooligans, harvest a crop of golden cucumbers, and on and on. . . .
A wizard's work is never done!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 charming and whimsical June 16, 2007
This is really like a series of short stories about one summer in the life of the main character. I loved everything about it.
Excellent for Kids & Adults Alike August 27, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Oh...now I so enjoyed this one!! A light, humorous and well written book of related (by the main character) short stories. The main character, a young wizard instructor on his summer vacation (who incidentally disguises himself during the school year and occasionally at other times as an aged wizard, because as he says, no one believes that a young man can be a wizard). Throughout the story, we find this wizard just trying to get some gardening done and enjoy his vacation...but he is dragged away from home over and over again in what amounts to some very slyly told adventures!
I think this author is one we will definitely be reading again! Both my kids enjoyed it and it was a nice twist on some of the better known fairy tales and even a little bit about the origins of the Lock Ness Monster...very cute! I laughed out loud in a couple of places...but mostly it was sly in way that kids can relate to if they've already heard all the standard tales.
A few illustrations would have been nice, but the cover provides enough of a beginning visual and while this intended audience is kids and teens from about 8-14, the language is vivid and expressive enough to pull off a good telling even to younger kids, if you do the voices and tell it in an expressive way. Heck, as an adult I certainly enjoyed it...maybe more than I should have. I give this one an A+ and both the kids gave it two thumbs up! This is a keeper!
 Pleasant, sensible, sweet stories of a wizard instructor May 22, 2006
Wizard at Work is a light-hearted and sensibly fun middle grade novel from Vivian Vande Velde, who has established a reputation for solid fantasy and horror for Young Adult readers. I say novel, and that is how the book is packaged, but it is really a collection of some five fairly independent shorter pieces, with an introductory episode and a hint of a unifying narrative.
The never-named title character is an instructor at a school for wizards. He is fairly young, though he tends to disguise himself magically as an older man -- people just don't believe someone as young as he really is can be a respectable wizard. As the story opens, he is settling into his summer vacation, hoping to spend his time as usual -- puttering around his garden, mainly. An encounter with a rather snappish witch reminds him that he might not be ecstatically happy, but that "true happiness is overrated."
The rest of the novel, then, recounts five episodes, following a fairly consistent pattern. As he attempts to find peace and putter around his garden some more, he is interrupted by someone importuning him for help with a magical problem. The problems echo familiar stories -- a Cinderella variant, a ghost haunting a castle, a princess needing rescue from a dragon, troublesome unicorns, and a royal family trying to marry off an obstreperous daughter. Vande Velde rings some pleasant and clever changes on these familiar tropes. It's lots of breezy fun, with common sense ruling the day. And, as one might expect, the wizard himself has some growing to do.
This is a very enjoyable book. It doesn't plow any new ground, mind you, nor is it riotously funny. But it is pleasant throughout, sensible, humanistic, sweet -- in a word, nice.
Very clever and lots of fun March 3, 2006
A collection of stories about a young man who runs a school for young wizards throughout the school year and who loves to garden, fish and nap in the summer. This summer, however, is especially busy and he is called upon to help by those requiring the skills of a wizard, and during those times he disguises himself as an old man "as people expected a wizard to look".
This book includes 5 stories about the wizard's work, and what makes them so unique is that they draw upon familiar fairy tales and legends describing parts of those stories we've never heard. For example, one story entitled "Beasts on the Rampage" explains how Jack really got those magic beans, and it is not at all how one might expect. It seems that Jack is quite irresponsible and has a bit of a gambling problem. He is trying to concoct some story to tell his mother about where the money has gone that he received after selling their cow Bessie. Meanwhile a pack of adolescent unicorns is terrorizing the village and the wizard is called upon to address the situation. The unicorn's behavior has gotten so bad that we find out they are making a barbeque of Bessie. During a magic spell to make the unicorns grow older by one year and thus be past this stage of behavior, some residual magic is left on some beans that Jack then steals from the wizard. The reader is left listening to Jack's tale of how he exchanged Bessie for some magic beans. "Wizard and Ghost" explains just how Loch Ness ends up with a monster, and "The Princess and the Quest for the Golden Cucumbers" tells the story of how the wizard himself fulfills the quest to win the heart of a princess without using any magic. This is a very entertaining book that younger kids are really going to enjoy.
An enchanting book December 21, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a short, sweet, sensational book that should appeal not only to fans of Harry Potter but also lovers of classical fairytales. Wonderfully written and fast paced, it is both witty and wickedly funny. Almost more like a series of short stories than a novel, each chapter sees the hero of the story, a young wizard, embarking on a new adventure--or misadventure.
This is an easy read for the 8 to 12 year old market, and should tempt even the most reluctant of young readers, but in my view it will also definitely appeal to any older teens and adults looking for a good read as well.
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