Night of the New Magicians
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Night of the New Magicians is the 35th book in the Magic Tree House series written by Mary Pope Osborne and illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca. The book features Jack and Annie, a brother and sister from Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. This is the seventh book in the series called the "Merlin Missions". In these books, it is Merlin the Magician who sends Jack and Annie on quests in the tree house.
This book takes Jack and Annie to Paris, France, for the 1889 Paris World's Fair, otherwise known as the Paris Expositon Universelle, 1889. Their mission: find four "new magicians" and learn the secrets of their magic before and evil sorcerer kidnaps them and steals their secrets.
They race all over Paris, worrying that they'll never find the new magicians and learn their secrets in time. Some places they visit are: the Eiffel Tower, the Hall of Machines, the Louis Pasteur Institute, where they find a locked door and a night guard with a spooky attitude.
At the institute, the night watchman tells them that Dr. Pasteur left and had to be to the Eiffel Tower by 10 P.M. A strange man in a cloak delivered the note, and Jack and Annie thought he was the sorcerer! So they walked all over, trying to get to the tower. Then a strange couple lent them their bike, and they used a magic rhyme to make the bike fly, so they could get to the tower faster.
When they got to the tower, the elevators were closed for the day, so Jack and Annie had to climb the 1,652 steps to the top platform. When they got there, they went inside Gustave Eiffel's apartment, met the four new magicians, who were: Louis Pasteur, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Gustave Eiffel. They learned their secrets before a knocking came, and strange man with a cloak came in. Jack said a line of a magic rhyme, and he thought Annie forgot hers!
They were going to make the sorcerer disappear with a magic rhyme, but it turns out that the cloaked man was Merlin! He asked for the secrets of the four magicians, who were inventors and scientists and builders, and then told them that there were no evil sorcerers in their world, and that problems make you face your energy. Never wish for your problems to disappear, Merlin says, because problems can help you achieve your goals.
Then Merlin leaves, and Jack and Annie leave a few minutes after. They climb back down the 1,652 steps of the Eiffel Tower, walk to the Tree house, and come back home to Frog Creek, where the sun is setting.
The book is great for young readers, not only because they learn new information, but because they meet new people, like the new magicians. Night of the New Magicians is available in print from Random House and on audio version from Listening Library.
