Wonderful! These are the imaginative short stories you would expect from Neil Gaiman. They fall between Young Adult and Adult reading, to my mind. Highly recommend!

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Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

M IS FOR MAGIC is a collection of eleven short stories. This book was geared for elementary/middle school but I thought that I couldn't read many of the stories aloud in my classroom because some of the themes are pretty adult.

I liked many of the stories, especially THE WITCH'S HEADSTONE. This was a story about a real boy who was living in a graveyard and being raised by ghosts. He decides to do a very kind thing for a ghost who didn't get a gravestone and the story follows the adventure that goes with that decision.

I also enjoyed THE CASE OF FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS. It was a detective story set with nursery rhyme characters. The detective needs to solve the mystery of who killed Humpty Dumpty. It is told with attitude and is very funny.

There are also stories that are scary or just plain creepy. The story about the jack-in-the-box just gave me chills. So if you want to read some good, strange stories that only take about an hour to read, check this book out.

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M is for Magic: When this author decides to write tales for youth or adults I can't help checking out what I find. He's an incredible spinner of stories. This collection is written for youth and sure to be an exciting read the age group. These eleven stories are intriguing, fascinating and sometimes downright scary. While some may not appeal to you, do read them all to find your favorites.

They are: The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds, derived from the nursery rhyme set; Troll Bridge, written for adolescents; Don't Ask Jack is a bit creepy; How to Sell the Ponti Bridge, with a science fiction background; October in the Chair, a tribute The Price, interesting and Poe-like but with its own telling; How to Talk to Girls at Parties, a funny adolescent story in a science fiction mode; Sunbird, another funny tale; The Witch's Headstone, from the Graveyard Book; and Instructions, a fine writing as a poem.

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As with a lot of short stories, there are usually ones you like and ones you don't. That is the case for me in this book. A couple of my favorites are when a detective is sent to investigate Humpty Dumpty's fall, or when and elderly lady finds the holy grail, or a wonderful black cat that is better for the family than they'll ever know. Some of the others were just okay. I guess the biggest disappointment was that they have the story of the Graveyard Book in there (condensed form). I had already read this book and to have this wasted space in there was a bit irritating. Nonetheless is was a pretty good read.

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