The Wizard

by Jack Prelutsky, Brandon Dorman (Illustrator)

Overview

The wizard, watchful, waits alone within his tower of cold gray stone and ponders in his wicked way what evil deeds he'll do this day.

What do you think the wizard is planning to do? Conjure a magic spell? Turn a frog into a flea? Fill a cauldron with bubbling brew?

You may think you know . . . but watch out. Because if the wizard is bored, he may come looking for you!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062067005
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/14/2011
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Jack Prelutsky is the best-selling author of more than fifty books of poetry, including The New Kid on the Block, illustrated by James Stevenson, and Stardines Swim High Across the Sky, illustrated by Carin Berger. Jack Prelutsky lives in Washington State.

Brandon Dorman lives in Puyallup, Washington, and is the creator of Pirates of the Sea! and Santa's Stowaway, and the illustrator of Jack Prelutsky's Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face, as well as Halloween Night, by Marjorie Dennis Murray.

Editorial Reviews

On a seemingly normal suburban cul-de-sac, one house is definitely out of character-the looming tower that's home to the title character. Dressed in a green robe and peaked hat decorated with stars and moons, "He's tall and thin with wrinkled skin," writes Prelutsky, "a tangled beard hangs from his chin." (The verse originally appeared in the 1976 collection Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep.) As he "ponders in his wicked way/ what evil deed he'll do this day," the wizard decides to gives his powers a workout on a hapless frog. The poor amphibian is transformed into a flea, a pair of mice, a cockatoo, a piece of chalk and silver bell before being returned to his original shape. Mightily pleased with himself, the wizard gazes down upon the children playing in the street below and debates his next move: "He may pluck someone off the spot/ and turn him into... who knows what?" The poem isn't one of Prelutsky's most memorable works, but it is pretext enough for an impressive picture book by Dorman. The illustrator's digital artwork has all the burnished lushness and radiance of oil paintings. Whether immersing readers in the delicious gloominess of the wizard's workroom or zooming in for a close-up of the enchanter's knobby fingers and menacing nails, Dorman proves his mettle as a marvelous visual storyteller. Ages 5-10. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3
A creepy tower looms at the end of an ordinary neighborhood street; inside, a wicked and bored wizard is pondering "what evil deeds he'll do this day." He amuses himself by turning a bullfrog into a flea, which turns into two mice "that dive into a bubbling brew/emerging as one cockatoo." He continues his circular transforming spells until at last the bullfrog appears. The poem, adapted from "The Wizard" in Prelutsky's Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (HarperCollins, 1976), ends with a sinister warning: "He may pluck someone off the spot/and turn him into . . . who knows what?" Just whom he spots from his tower window is revealed through Dorman's vivid illustration: an unfortunate skateboarding kid who is zapped into a lizard. The digitally created spreads are spectacular, featuring a variety of perspectives from a close-up of the wizard's disgusting fingernails to a panoramic view from the tower. Readers will be fascinated by the rich details-the peculiar items on the shelves and in the rest of the wicked wizard's abode. There is much about this book for kids to love.
—Lee BockCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Lit with a greenish glow, elaborately detailed digital paintings give a properly eerie setting to this shortened version of a poem originally published in Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep (1976). In a book-strewn workroom atop a stone tower that looms crookedly over an otherwise ordinary modern suburban neighborhood, a Saruman-ish wizard with long black nails idly transforms a passing bullfrog into a flea, a pair of mice, a cockatoo and other shapes. Then he leans out of his window to select his next victim (maybe you) from among the ant-like figures on the street below. Closing with a ground-level view of a surprised-looking chameleon clinging to a skateboard and the suggestion that "Should you encounter a toad or lizard, look closely . . . / it may be the work of a wizard," Dorman's debut makes an atmospheric opener for any magic-themed storytime. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews