I liked the movie Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, but not well enough to endure the junior novelization of it. I haven't read one of those since E.T., which came out when I was about 10. Movie novelizations, I find, tend to fall into two categories: the "twice-boiled cabbage" type, in which you read pretty much exactly what was in the movie only with 50% of the color and excitement blanched out of it; or the "habanero chile" type, which digresses into flights of creativity so impressive that they leave the film in the dust. Neither is ever quite satisfying to a film fan; and if I'm going to enjoy a book strictly on its merits as a book, I would rather pick the book the movie was based on than vice versa.

On the bookstore display next to the novelization of Magorium's Emporium, however, I found this charming little piece by an author (or rather, pseudonym) whose other works I have already enjoyed. Bode, the alter ego of Julianna Baggott, relates the backstory of Mr. Magorium, hinting sideways at elements of the story familiar to fans of the movie, but otherwise inventing fresh material. It is the name-dropping story of a toy inventor who lived for 243 years, traveled all over the world, rubbed elbows with all kinds of amazing people (real, historical ones), and emerged from the scratchy, stinky, fresh-fruit-deprived 19th century to inspire your favorite alumnus of the "Alton School for the Remarkably Giftless" to follow his own dreams and find his own gifts.

This not-quite-movie-novelization advances the character of N. E. Bode almost as much as that of Edward Magorium. It will be interesting to see what further adventures Baggott - I mean Bode - has in store. The story itself is a bit disorganized, or rather arbitrarily organized (A to Z), so that after some initial chapters of consecutive narrative it lapses into a loose collection of anecdotes. Nevertheless, it brings a hopeful, encouraging philosophy of life to the level of kids who would just as soon visit a toy store as a book store.

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 10+

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