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.

This book was written by The Poetry Foundation's Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky. The poem is spooky and engaging, but the real star of the book is the artwork. The illustrations are beautifully done and are reminiscent of the computer generated animation that is so popular in children's movies today.

Since the text of the book is a poem, your child will love the bouncy rhythm that keeps the story moving from page to page. There is not a lot of text on each page, which will allow your child to stay interested in the artwork. The book has a lot of eerie images that are exciting, but are not gory or scary. There are a lot of interesting details that are in the pictures, so your child will likely ask a lot of questions about what is going to happen next.

My nephew Michael gets a kick out of anything having to do with wizards or magic. We had a really fun day reading this together and talked about all of the gross rats and frogs that went into the wizard's potions. He asked me if there were any wizards that lived in his neighborhood. We went outside and looked around for signs of wizards, and to his great relief, we didn't find any.

--Eve

My two oldest boys loved this book. The illustrations are amazing. Rich colors and precise details make "The Wizard" a visually appealing book. My other favorite part is that it is actually a poem. It seems like it is getting somewhat rare to find a book that uses poetry. In the poem the wizard wonders what magic he can create that day. The wizard looks like a classic magician with a pointy hat and long white beard. Throughout the story we see the wizards magic. There is nothing frightening about the book. Rather it is focused only on the magic and imagination of the wizard. My boys and I love books like this, ones that inspire your thoughts.

--Alicia, Elgin, MN