Edward Eager

Four children wish on a Half Magic coin that gets their mother Alison half-way home, rescued by Mr Smith. Mark's wish zaps them to a desert without island, where half-talking cat Carrie gabbles to a camel. Romantic Katherine battles Launcelot. Eldest Jane rejects siblings for another family. Stubborn youngest, Martha, causes a riot downtown.

"Anything can happen when you have all the time in the world" says the frog-like Natterjack in old relative Mrs Whiton's thyme garden. Cousins Roger, Ann, Eliza and girl-crazy Jack ride for American rebels, bow to Queen Elizabeth I, and even rescue their own parents when they were children.

If Jane and Mark and Katharine and Martha had stopped to think, they might have ordered magic by the pound, or by the day, but a lakeful of magic causes extraordinary and unexpected events. By the end of vacation, with an unwilling sly old turtle, and Ali Baba's forty thieves, they help stepfather Mr. Smith save his failing bookstore in a most surprising way.

When the ancient toy soldier comes alive, the Old One grants Roger's wish to adventure in "yeomanly" Sherwood Forest. Will Roger earn his second wish, to save his father? Need for an operation brings Roger 11 and younger Ann to stay with bossy cousin Eliza and Jack. Can the children convince Ivanhoe to marry Rebecca over Rowena, and conquer the castle - in pjs?

“Luckily for Edward Eager’s fans, the children in his latest book are just as lively and literary as those in Half Magic .”-- The New York Times Book Review

The magic begins when Laura and her family--brothers James, baby Deborah, and her parents--move to a country house in Connecticut. There is a well in the yard, and Laura is the kind of girl who believes in making wishes. Her first wish comes true, and this sets off a round of adventures for Laura, James and two neighbors, Kip and Lydia, who mix what seems to be genuine magic with good deeds: saving old Miss Isabella King's house from a mortgage foreclosure, rescuing the "long-lost heir," persuading snobbish Mrs. Witherspoon to support the new school proposal, and discovering the secret of the antique desk. And as for the magic, is it or not?