So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane ★★★☆☆

Modest hopes give way to bigger expectations

Fiction – Juvenile – Urban Fantasy

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

336 pages

Publication Date: 1983

Young Wizards #1

Nita wanted only a chance to escape the bullies pursuing her when she sought sanctuary in the children’s section of her local library, but she found so much more.  Clutching a copy of, So you Want to be a Wizard, she left the library and embarked on the adventure of a life time.  With Kit, another wizard in training, and Fred the white hole, Nita was sent on a quest to return a missing book and right a multiverse going wrong.

Encouraged by the title – which I adore - I started this book, the first of the multi-book series (last count I saw it was up to 10 – to be published this year), with modest hopes, but rapidly I realized my expectations were too low. 

So You Want to Be a Wizard, was very well written for a Juvenile age group, with a good balance between amazing descriptions and allowing for my imagination to work its wonders.  Duane has a great ability to put you right into the fast paced scenes, while creating a fascinating and imaginative story leaving me wondering where it was going next.  The scope was very ambitious, which I found to be both a strength and at times a weakness.  On an occasion I had a hard time following the action and found the mythology to be a bit complicated for the first book, especially considering it is meant for early grade schoolers.  

As for the characters Duane quickly and thoroughly introduced me to Nita with her love of books – she definitely put my feelings on book and library into something much more eloquent than I could ever express myself – her affinity for living things, and the trials and tribulations of her life from her family to school bullies.  Kit and Fred were a little more aloof, but not so much that I didn’t feel sympathetic toward them and care about them as part of the trio. 

Overall I enjoyed this book, not only because I am sure it has sparked generations of other fantasy stories ( I mean it is still going strong  30 years later, talk about longevity), but also just for the story’s own sake.

ISBN  0152047387 (ISBN13: 9780152047382)