Upside-Down Magic (Upside-Down Magic Series #1)

by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, Emily Jenkins

Overview

Meet the Upside-Down Magic kids in the first topsy-turvy adventure of this New York Times bestselling series, now a Disney Channel Original Movie!

It's never easy when your magic goes wonky.For Nory, this means that instead of being able to turn into a dragon or a kitten, she turns into both of them at the same time — a dritten.For Elliott, the simple act of conjuring fire from his fingertips turns into a fully frozen failure.For Andres, wonky magic means he's always floating in the air, bouncing off the walls, or sitting on the ceiling.For Bax, a bad moment of magic will turn him into a . . . actually, he'd rather not talk about that.Nory, Elliott, Andres, and Bax are just four of the students in Dunwiddle Magic School's Upside-Down Magic class. In their classroom, lessons are unconventional, students are unpredictable, and magic has a tendency to turn wonky at the worst possible moments. Because it's always amazing, the trouble a little wonky magic can cause . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545800464
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Series:	Upside-Down Magic Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	51,276
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Emily Jenkins is the author of many chapter books, including the Toys trilogy (which begins with Toys Go Out) and the Invisible Inkling series. Her picture books include Lemonade in Winter, Toys Meet Snow, and The Fun Book of Scary Stuff. She would like to be a Flare and work as a pastry chef. Visit Emily at emilyjenkins.com.
Sarah Mlynowski is the New York Times bestselling author of the Whatever After series, the Magic in Manhattan series, Best Wishes, Gimme a Call, and a bunch of other books for teens and tweens, including the Upside-Down Magic series, which she cowrites with Lauren Myracle and Emily Jenkins and which was adapted into a movie for the Disney Channel. Originally from Montreal, Sarah now lives in Los Angeles with her family. Visit Sarah online at sarahm.com and find her on Instagram, Facebook, and X at @sarahmlynowski.
Lauren Myracle is the New York Times bestselling author of many books for young readers, including The Winnie Years (which begins with Ten), the Flower Power series (which begins with Luv Ya Bunches), and the Life of Ty series. She would like to be a Fuzzy so she could talk to unicorns and feed them berries. You can find Lauren online at laurenmyracle.com.

Read an Excerpt

Excerpt from Upside Down Magic

Nory Horace was trying to turn herself into a kitten.

The kitten had to be a black kitten. And it had to be completely kitten-shaped.

It was the middle of summer. Nory was hiding in her family’s garage. Kitten, kitten, kitten, she thought.

She was hiding in case something went wrong. She didn’t want anyone to see. Still, if something went really wrong, her brother and sister would be close enough to hear her yell for help.

Or meow for help.

Or roar.

Nory decided not to think about that. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need help.

Kitten, kitten, kitten.

She had to master kitten, because tomorrow was the Big Test. Tomorrow, after so many years of waiting, she would finally take the entrance exam for Sage Academy.

The school was very hard to get into. You wouldn’t be accepted with anything less than amazing talents. Nory’s friends weren’t even bothering to try. They were all taking tests for easier schools.

If Nory passed the Big Test, she would start fifth grade at Sage Academy in the fall.

If she failed the test . . .

No. She couldn’t fail. She wasn’t taking tests for any other schools.

Editorial Reviews

06/15/2015
The writers behind How to Be Bad (2008) aim for a younger audience in this entertaining story about magical powers gone humorously awry. Ten-year-old Nory is mortified when she bungles her interview at the posh magical academy where her father is headmaster; attempting to morph into a kitten, she instead turns into a sequence of outrageous hybrid animals, including a “dritten” (dragon-kitten). She is shipped off to live with her wonderfully kooky Aunt Margo (who works as a flying taxi, zipping passengers around on her back) and enrolls in an “Upside-Down Magic” program. Nory’s fear that her classmates will be “the worst of the wonky” is delightfully realized. Magical shenanigans abound as the story celebrates individuality, self-acceptance, and tolerance, encapsulated in Aunt Margo’s advice: “Just be who you are, not who you think you should be.” Featuring short chapters and lively, funny dialogue, this novel should please kids who don’t naturally find reading to be magical, as well as those who do. Ages 8–12. Agent: (for Mlynowski) Laura Dail, Laura Dail Literary Agency; (for Myracle) Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary; (for Jenkins) Elizabeth Kaplan, Elizabeth Kaplan Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Nory’s magic is wonky—her attempts to turn herself into an animal always take a wrong turn into some strange hybrid animal. (The audiobook’s cover shows a kitten with wings.) Whenever Nory’s transformations derail, Rebecca Soler gives her inner dialogues a dual personality that reflects the combination of animals she’s become. Nory’s magical wonkiness gets her sent to live with her Aunt Margo, who, to her dismay, enrolls her in Dunwiddle Magic School, for children with upside-down magic. Aunt Margo exudes confidence and positive energy as she guides Nory through the transition to non-wonky magic. Soler gives Nory’s teacher, Ms. Starr, a kind and welcoming voice. She individualizes each of Nory’s classmates, giving voice to his or her traits—shy, tough and silent, snooty, or friendly and funny—as the case may be. M.F.T. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile

2015-06-23
In a society where everyone has a neatly defined magical talent, Nory is a misfit. There are Flares, Fuzzies, Flickers, and Flyers, each having particular skills. Nory is a Fluxer, able to transform herself into an animal. But her magic is wonky. Her kitten mixes with a beaver or a dragon, and she has no control over it. When she fails the entrance exam for her father's school, Nory feels that she is a complete failure. Her father sends her to live with her aunt to attend a school that has an experimental class for students whose magic doesn't fit the prescribed methods. Her aunt is welcoming, accepting, and loving. With the guidance of her very wise teacher, Nory makes friends with other children who are dealing with all sorts of uncontrolled magic. After many false starts and a brave adventure, she learns to embrace her out-of the-norm gifts. The authors nicely balance interesting and original magic elements with family and middle school dynamics. Likable Nory is prickly, needy, and determined as she rebounds from every disappointment, but her relationship with her father is a constant source of pain that is never resolved. The narrative voice is not omniscient, never reaching beyond 10-year-old Nory's emotional understanding. Readers will recognize much that is familiar and appealing in this alternate universe. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews