The Magic Half

This book would have been a favorite of mine when I was 8 or 9 through 11. It would have received 5 stars from me at that time. As an only child who wanted a twin sister or at least siblings, it would have been a perfect book for me.<br /><br />It’s a wonderful book for girls who are fascinated with twins, only children, middle birth order children, kids who feel overlooked/not special, kids who enjoy time travel books and history, and magic. I don’t love it quite as much as one of my personal favorites, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/868670.Time_At_The_Top" title="Time At The Top by Edward Ormondroyd" rel="noopener">Time At The Top</a>, or the excellent <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/1883571.The_Root_Cellar" title="The Root Cellar by Janet Lunn" rel="noopener">The Root Cellar</a>, or other historical fiction time travel books written for children. It’s very light on the history. But toward the end when I knew what was going to happen, I was thrilled, and I loved the ending, though I wish it hadn’t ended so abruptly; I wanted more. <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="f028d172-965f-47aa-9bce-4a00d8495625" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="f028d172-965f-47aa-9bce-4a00d8495625"> I also wish statistics had been given for the new family configuration the way they were given for the family as first introduced. </label> Also, while at the beginning I wasn’t that wowed by the time travel aspect, by the end I decided this book deserves a place on my favorite-time-travel-books shelf.

On a purely emotional and personal level, I really do adore Annie Barrows' <u>The Magic Half</u> and would likely have loved this novel ardently as a child (as indeed, I have always rightfully or wrongfully felt like somewhat of a stranger in and misunderstood by my family and Miri's struggles thus resonate both loudly and clearly). However and that being said, although the storyline of <u>The Magic Half</u> flows mostly smoothly, with graceful emotionality, and while the time-traveling elements are generally successfully, believably conceptualised and presented, both the heroes and villains Miri encounters on the other side, in the 1930s, are a bit too fairy and folktale like for adult reader I (with Molly really being rather too much like an eponymous Cinderella type character in distress, and especially her aunt and male cousin Horst a trifle too one-sidedly monstrous and vile). For while I do much appreciate and often read folk and fairy tales (in their place), with <u>The Magic Half</u>, a bit more nuance and character development for the characters beyond the curtain so to speak would in my opinion make the plot more interesting than a standard good-versus-evil reading scenario that could be straight out of my Brothers' Grimm collection. Still, I truly do like <u>The Magic Half</u> and my childhood self was even more than prepared to award a high four star rating until the ending (which not only occurs much too abruptly, but simply having Miri and Molly suddenly appear as another set of family twins and thus, the default, really makes the entire premise of the novel, namely that Miri feels misunderstood and cast aside, forgotten, in and by her family, rather and unfortunately moot). All this notwithstanding, <u>The Magic Half</u> remains recommended, as especially the target audience of youngish Middle Grade readers will most likely appreciate (if not love) this sweet little family tale as an engaging, fun and also indeed magical reading experience.

I feel a little bit better now that I see this book is a part of a series. It felt too underdeveloped to be the only Miri and Molly adventure. (Okay, I double checked and there is only one other book in the series. My underdeveloped problem remains.) <br />Perhaps I have lost the magic of childhood but the internal logic of this book bugged me throughout. Miri travels back in time, finds a girl in need of rescue, and immediately decides the proper solution is to bring her back to her own time. But why is that the solution? The book never convinced me on it. Further, Miri (and the author) go out of their way to make sure timeline isn't too badly damaged in Miri's time. And we see that things change in her time after her visit to the past, so clearly the past/timeline where she visits hasn't already happened. But wouldn't the nature of pulling Molly irrevocably change everything? Why does that not change the timeline? <br />I guess the answer is "magic" and I find that utterly unhelpful. <br />Complaints aside, I really liked Miri and her imagination. That was basically me as a kid. Chapter 1 in particular left me smiling because her daydream sounded exactly like something I would have come up with. I liked her family and their internal dynamics. <br />Of course, weighing against Miri's family was the complete, unexplained evilness of Molly's. Who needs nuance when you need villains? <br />Overall I would say this book had good potential and some really excellent ideas but the follow-through felt underdeveloped and illogical.

What an interesting book to follow Firmin in my reading chronology. The two books could not have been more different. In Firmin, the writing and vocabulary were top notch, but that wasn't enough to make it a great book. This book was simply written, but engaging, fun and delightful. How did I find this book? My 9 year old brought it home from the school library with her! I had finished Firmin, wanted something to read and flipped open this book that was sitting on the chair next to me. After a chapter, I decided to read the whole thing. I'll admit I think it's fun to enjoy a book that my daughter picked out to read.<br /><br />This book is about Miri, a 10 year old girl who has 12 year old twin brothers and 4 year old twin sisters. While I didn't grow up in a family with a "middle child," I am more sensitive to this role now that I have three daughters. Miri is truly stuck in the middle and feels out of place in her own family since she's the only one without a twin. The author did a great job of making me empathize with Miri. I also empathized with her somewhat harried mother who is frustrated by the way her children fight with each other all the time - but that might be more of a statement about my life than what the author intended!<br /><br />At the start of the book, Miri and her family have just moved to an old house out in the country. Miri finds the lens of a glass in her attic bedroom, looks through it and is transported back in time to the same home in 1935, where she meets Molly.<br /><br />This book is about magic - literally, the magic of traveling through time. Figuratively, it's about the magic that makes a family a family. It's about the magic that makes one person choose to help another, even when scared. It's also the magic of reading a book that makes you feel young again.

<br />Most of my current reading is preview reading for my children. The oldest has a reading level that is high paired with a "scariness" tolerance that is low. Most of her chosen books through 4th grade were "fairy books". Therefore, I am constantly reading books and determining whether she'll find them scary. <br /><br />While there is some dramatic tension in The Magic Half, it is a good choice for my daughter. It is a quick read with just enough magic for my fairy child.

Eleven-year-old Miriam Gill - Miri for short - is continually the odd one out in her family, excluded by both her twin elder brothers, Robbie and Ray, and by her twin younger sisters, Nell and Nora. When the family move into a rambling old house on Pickering Lane, Miri has no idea that a magical adventure will soon bring her something she has always wanted: a close companion and <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="23f4884a-2489-426f-9182-37c81aa9bdf7" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="23f4884a-2489-426f-9182-37c81aa9bdf7">twin sister</label> of her own. Banished to her room shortly after a disastrous fight with Ray, Miri discovers an odd piece of glass taped to the wall, and gazing through it, is drawn back in time to 1935, where she meets a young girl named Molly, living in the same house on Pickering Lane. Soon discovering that Molly is both unhappy - her adoptive aunt and cousins are often unkind to her, treating her like a poor relation - and in danger from her brutish cousin Horst, who is a thief and bully (and potentially worse), Miri is determined to help. When she finds herself unexpectedly in the present once more, she is desperately afraid of what might be happening (or might have already happened) to Molly back in the past. Can Miri find her way back to 1935? And if she does, will she be able to save Molly...?<br /><br />Chosen as our February selection in <i>The Children's Fiction Book Club</i> to which I belong, <u>The Magic Half</u> is an entertaining time-slip fantasy for middle-grader readers, featuring two appealing but believable young heroines, and an engrossing story that will keep readers involved until the very end. Although it took me a few chapters to become really invested in it, by the latter half of the book I was racing for the end, determined to see how it would all work out. Horst makes for an atypically realistic villain - he is really a very creepy character for a book aimed at this age level, I think - and Molly is just different enough from Miri, in terms of vocabulary and knowledge, that the reader can believe she is from 1935. The time-travel itself is never really explained - save that it was meant to be, because (according to Molly's fairy-like Grandma May) <i>"magic is a way of setting things right"</i> - but the mechanics of the travel, how seeing through each girl's set of glasses takes you into her time, is interesting. I appreciated the scene in which Miri really begins to think about the nature of time, and how different choices could lead events in so many different directions. Although Barrows never uses the term, Miri is clearly struggling towards an understanding of the concept of a multiverse.<br /><br />All in all, <u>The Magic Half</u> is an engaging time-slip tale, one I would recommend to middle-grade readers with a taste for such stories, as well as to children who feel a little left out in their families, or who long for something magical to happen to them.

After finishing The Magic Half I find myself slightly confused. It is the story of Miri. Miri has twin older brothers and twin younger sisters. The book starts out with Miri expressing some of her frustrations with her sibling situation and feeling unjustly punished for an altercation she believes to be her brother’s fault.<br /> <br />She finds the lens from a pair of eyeglasses taped to the wall in her bedroom (they have only lived in the house for a week or two). When Miri looks through the lens she is transported back in time to 1935. She meets Molly, the girl who lived in her bedroom seventy years earlier. It is at this point that the story starts to lose its way. It seems to me that the story can’t really decide if it’s an adventure, a story about sibling order, the advantages of never losing your ability to pretend, a science fiction time travel episode or the tale of two young girls getting the better of a mean, bullying older boy (who also happens to be a jewel thief).<br /> <br />There are some moments that are engaging: the beginning with Miri and her siblings rings true in Miri’s words and actions; and the stints when MIri is in 1935 and dealing with the bully, Horst, are exciting and well-paced. The parts in between tend to drag. The character of Molly’s grandma in the 1935 house seems contrived and doesn’t really go with the rest of the story. Also all the pages that detail Miri’s thoughts about the nature of time and time travel are boring and confusing. It is obviously how the author made the time issue make sense in her head, as opposed to Miri’s. A much better example of how this could be handled within a story that is both easy to understand and exciting is The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix.<br /> <br />All told, there are definitely some moments to enjoy in this story. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they do not outweigh the ones that aren’t.<br />

I recently finished The Magic Half by Annie Barrows. This book begins with Miri who is stuck in the middle of two sets of twins. After moving to a new house she discovers a new world, well old world. Sinking through time unexpectedly and into 1935 meeting Molly, a girl living with her sick grandma,mean Aunt Flo, and two nasty cousins. When Miri discovers all of this the author describes her reaction and inner conversation really well so I can feel as well as understand Miri's thoughts. Twist and turns help make this story come alive and be filled with action and fantasy. I can connect with Molly because she was being treated as a servant and that reminded me of Cinderella being treated unfairly. With sinking into time,scaring evil cousins, and two new friends this makes this book awsome Good Read.

Awe, memories! Very first middle grade book I read. Haha XD It actually gotten me into actual reading, and fantasy. Gosh, it was ages ago, but I still remember when I was in suspense in the book and when I was amazed by the ending. Now I think about it, if it wasn't for this book; I wouldn't be reading and if I wasn't reading, it would not make me the reading loving person or a goodreader that I am today! Wow, I am in this author's debt!

A cute little novel from the j-fiction shelves -- Cami is a fan of Ivy+Bean and really liked this one as well. Suspenseful and even a bit unsettling, but full of good writing, strong heroines, and great action. Cami is my reluctant reader, and there were several nights in a row where I had to *make* her stop reading to go to bed. Always a good sign.