A hilarious take on what a magic word really is from Mac Barnett, the award-winning, bestselling author of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn, and Elise Parsley, the bestselling author/illustrator of If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't! and If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don't!

When Paxton C. Heymeyer’s babysitter tells him to say the magic word, she could never have imagined that what would happen next would be a walrus chasing her, an elephant in the living room playing cards, and a full water park and moat in the front yard. And that’s just the beginning

Editor reviews

2 reviews

Very Cute!

September 08, 2016

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

N/A

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

A cute book that will be enjoyed by children of various ages.

The Magic Word isn’t what you’re expecting it to be. Most would think this is a book about teaching kids to say please when in fact, the magic word is Alakazoomba. Paxton is a little boy who just wants what other little boys want – cookies, but he doesn’t want to listen to his babysitter to get them. Lucky for him, he has a bit of magic up his sleeve that can get him whatever he wants and leads him on an adventure he didn’t see coming.

I enjoyed this book with my two-year-old niece. There’s enough repetitiveness that she could catch on and become involved in the story as she tried to say the magic word. We had a grand time doing that together. The story is just wordy enough to have a deeper meaning without letting the bipolar mind of a toddler get bored. The pictures were well done. I would have liked it to teach her a little something more as the lesson didn’t come until the very end. Paxton is quite the brat and it takes a while for him to snap out of it, but she enjoyed it.

Overall, this is an enjoyable story that engages the young mind, making them wish they had a magic word of their own.