Nick Ruth

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.com

David's favorite thing to pretend is that he is "Magic David." Not card trick magic - REAL magic. Sadly, David is a completely normal boy. The strangest thing about him is the recurring nightmare he's having about an evil man in a dark robe. According to the article his dad found in the paper, even that's not very strange. Apparently there is a worldwide bad dream epidemic. That doesn't really make David feel better about it, since no one knows how to make them stop.

His current distraction, and happiest thought, is that he and his family get to collect Monarch Butterfly eggs. They'll monitor the eggs all the way through them turning into butterflies. Then they get to track their migration south. (Did you know Monarchs migrated? I didn't.) It's David's favorite thing, right about now.

He's alone in his room the first time he hears the call for help, but he brushes it off. Why wouldn't he? There's no one else in the room. Except the cats, but cats don't talk! David hears the voice again later and investigates. The voice is coming from the once Monarch egg, which is now a caterpillar! But caterpillars can't talk, either. Unless the caterpillar is really a wizard under a curse! David is so excited to meet a real wizard (well, sort of a wizard) and to know that there really is magic in the world, he nearly forgets that the caterpillar was yelling for help. There isn't much time for questions.

The wizard's name is Houdin. He's from a land called Remin. Remin is a magical place, and very different from the world David knows. He's about to find out just how different. Houdin needs David's help to get back to Remin and break the curse. In the process they'll have to face the dark wizard that's been haunting David's nightmares. If they succeed they'll save Remin, fix the nightmare problem, restore Houdin, and hopefully make it back before David's parents notice he's gone. If they fail, well, they just won't fail. Hopefully.

David learns so much more than just magic in this story, and so will you. Tolerance, the importance of friendship, the danger of letting fear get in the way, conservation of resources, the need to preserve nature... Most important, though, is the amazing power of imagination. It's the thing that makes everything else possible, not just in the story, but in life. And it all comes without you even noticing that you're learning!

A great fantastic adventure that seamlessly weaves a good story in with important lessons. Now that's impressive. It's a journey I will happily take again. And I definitely encourage you to give it a try, no matter how old you are.… (més)