A fantasy may be laid in the here-and-now, but in order to soar beyond its everyday setting, it must be written with imagination and better than average prose. [In "Black and Blue Magic"] Zilpha Keatley Snyder succeeds in humorously portraying the ordinary events in the life of Harry Houdini Marco, a 12-year-old with a legacy of magic, because she pays attention to slapstick details. But she fails to lift fumble-footed Harry into the extraordinary, which successful fantasy demands. Her language relies too heavily on the colloquial and lacks any touch of the poetic. A workable fantasy plot—a California boy becomes the owner of magic drops that makes wings grow from his shoulders—is fettered by slangy prose; and events and characters that should surprise become predictable. While Harry soars on magic wings over San Francisco, "Black and Blue Magic" remains earthbound.

Jane Yolen, "For Young Readers: 'Black...