Magic

Chronicles of the Red King: The Secret Kingdom

Timoken is a prince born in a secret kingdom. At his birth, a forest jinni bestows magical gifts upon him: a cloak made by the last moon spider and a potion called Alixir. When the peaceful land is attacked, Timoken and his sister, Zobayda, must find a new kingdom to call home. Together, with only the magical gifts and a talking camel, the siblings set off.

The Wish Pony

When the balloon was born I was going to tell it exactly what I thought about it, how sick it had made my mother and how it had ruined my life. Ruby’s mum is having a baby, but why does she need one of those when she’s already got a Ruby? To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah has just found another, BETTER friend. It seems like everyone is abandoning her. But when Ruby meets the mysterious Magda, who gives her a very special gift that might, just MIGHT even be a bit magical, everything begins to change.

The Wish Pony was Catherine’s first exploration of magic realism. It was partly inspired by a small ornamental horse she once saw in a relatives display cabinet.

The Flying Canoe: A Christmas Story

One frosty Christmas Eve in the Canadian wilderness, six homesick fur traders are visited by a mysterious stranger. The man claims that he can send them home to faraway Montreal that very night, but on one condition: they must not utter a word until they reach their homes. Agreeing to the terms, the fur traders climb into an enchanted canoe and paddle through the sky. But when hot-headed Armand cannot keep silent, it will take a daring move to outwit the stranger.

Meow Said the Cow

A hilarious send-up of animal sounds! It’s a noisy morning in the barnyard: roosters crowing, cows mooing, mice squeaking! And the farmer’s cat has had enough. With a flick of his tail, the cat casts a spell and the barnyard is turned upside-down. The chickens are oinking, the sheep are barking, and the sheepdog can only let out a confused “Baa?” It’s not long before the animals figure out who’s to blame.

Sylvie and the Songman

Sylvie Bartram lives alone with Mr. Jackson the dog and her eccentric composer father, who invents strange and wonderful musical instruments. One day she returns from school to find a message left in toothpaste on the bathroom mirror: her father has been kidnapped. Later that night, the house is visited by a terrifying apparition—a half-man, half-creature who is searching for something and will not rest until he has found it. Sylvie uncovers an underground world of magic and evil, and with help from her friends, she must hold off a power that threatens the lives of all beings in the world. The Songman is at large, and is determined to steal music and use it for his own evil ends.

Troubletwisters

When their house mysteriously explodes and they are sent to live with an unknown relative named Grandma X, twelve-year-old twins Jaide and Jack Shield learn that they are troubletwisters, young Wardens just coming into their powers, who must protect humanity from The Evil trying to break into Earth’s dimension.

 

The Garden of Empress Cassia

Mimi lives with her parents above her father’s herbalist shop. She hates being Chinese and being teased at school. More than anything she loves to draw, so when her art teacher gives her a box of pastels Mimi is thrilled. These are no ordinary pastels for the inscription on the box warns that they are “A treasure for some, a curse for others”. Mimi is able to draw amazing scenes on the footpath outside her father’s shop and the pastels breathe life into the pictures for those able to see it. When Gemma, her tormentor at school, steals the pastels, Mimi knows she must get them back – not only to keep them safe and their magic intact, but to save Gemma from the pastel’s curse.