The Magic Token is a journey into the magical wisdom of learning that loving is better than fighting.
Emma Thomas, a seventh grader, has lent her most prized coin to her friend. After waiting a week for the return of her Morgan Dollar minted in 1881, she confronts her friend, Dana, as to the coin's whereabouts. Dana sheepishly confesses she has spent the coin not realizing its value. Feeling betrayed and appalled at her friend's actions, Emma is rabid. Dana persuades Emma to accept a replica of a coin owned by the great writer Charles Dickens.
Dana returns home and while in a conversation with her brother she makes a wish about her most favorite story "Alice in Wonderland". In a finger snap, her wish comes true. She journeys through Alice's world learning much needed life lessons. There are lessons about race, judgment, anger, love and trust.
Emma tries to explain to Alice that Alice lives only in a story and Alice is perplexed by Emma's being Black. Emma tells Alice, "Everything seems real to you because it seemed real to the writer. Whatever a writer puts into a story, a reader gets the same out of it".
The author has put the written word to work in an out of the ordinary and first-rate chapter book filled with good-hearted lessons and reminds us all, there is "no place like home".
"I like very much that it [The Magic Token] engages such an old, known classic and finds a way to literally cast a modern day character into that world. It gives the work a chance to stay engaging and to be read by new young readers. In that way, besides being interesting, it is an important project."
I like that it folds a little Wizard of Oz on its references, thus perhaps encouraging interest in that work as well. I also like the little learning tidbits that happen almost beside the facts of the story: things about coins and the way simile and metaphor fuel the Alice references and create quite clever allusions.
Alice isn't alone in Wonderland. Emma Thomas has come to pay a visit and her presence mixes things up a bit. But when visiting a fictional place, is it wise to tell the characters that they are not real? And when drawing upon one's knowledge of the story, shouldn't you keep in mind that very often the movie is nothing like the book?
Emma's friend Dana gives her a replica of a magic token that was owned by Charles Dickens. It is said that Dickens used the coin to time travel for his book research. Only this replica is not a replica but the real thing. Emma accidentally wishes herself into 1862, in Alice's Wonderland. There, Emma finds things a good deal different from her favorite movie depiction of the tale and realizes that Lewis Carroll's version was not at all like Disney's.
Emma "helps" Alice on numerous occasions, thinking things will proceed as they do in the movie. Alice and Emma wind up having adventures that echo the famous book but have the twist of a modern girl's influence. The favorite characters abound, from the Cheshire Cat to the Mad Hatter and Alice's dream is still just as fanciful. But Emma is a tool for the reader to learn lessons on friendship, racial opinions, nonsense and home sweet home.
Written in a fun and lively, interesting and fantastical way, "The Magic Token" is sure to be enjoyed. What's more is that the book will inspire readers to seek out the original Alice in Wonderland story. This book is an entertaining read but also an honor to Lewis Carroll.
The Florida Writers Association has awarded The Magic Token first place in the middle grade fiction category in a nationally sponsored unpublished novel contest for 2004.
iUniverse (the publisher -- owned by Barnes and Noble) has given it the Editor's Choice Award, which recognizes The Magic Token as a professionally penned novel worthy of competing against any other novel in its genre.
The reviewing independent editor hired by iUniverse wrote, "A great plug for middle grade literacy!" and "This story is very well structured. Based on the outline of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, it enhances the classic story with a modern look without sacreficing the magic of the original tale." and "The pace moves the story quickly. It is lively and cleverly written." and "…you [the author] are on your way to a new children's classic!"
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