Shelly's Book Blog

Avi is one of my favorite children's book authors, so when I saw Midnight Magic on the shelf, I decided to give it a go. This is a rather short fantasy novel about a magician named Mangus and his loyal, 12-year-old assistant, Fabrizio. The king summons Mangus to court in secret because he wants Mangus to rid the castle of a ghost his daughter claims to have seen. Avi sets the story in Italy in the year 1491, but I would hesitate to call this historical fiction because he does not bring out a lot of historical detail with his storytelling here. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story because Fabrizio and Mangus are well drawn and likeable, and because the mystery surrounding the ghost intrigued me.