The Magician's Boy

Cooper, S. (2005).  The Magician's Boy.  New York:  Simon & Schuster.

The Magician's Boy is a captivating 2006-2007 Texas Bluebonnet nominee.  

Exposition:

The story is told from the third person limited point of view.  The magician's boy is introduced and the jobs he performs for the magician are described.  The job the boy likes best is controlling the puppets for the show the magician puts on about St. George and the dragon.

Conflict:

The boy wants to learn magic, but the magician will not teach him yet.  Another conflict is that the puppet of Saint George goes missing.

Rising Action:

The magician sends the boy into the Land of Story to search for Saint George.  The boy travels from story to story in search of the missing puppet.  He meets many story book characters along the way, such as the old woman who lives in a shoe, the Pied Piper, Red Riding Hood, and he even meets Jack as he is climbing the beanstalk.  He decides that he will only fnd Saint George if he finds the puppet's dragon.

Climax:

When he finds the dragon, everyone says that the boy is Saint George now.  The boy takes on the role of Saint George and fights the dragon.

Falling Action:

He stabs the dragon and the dragon dies, but he smiles and winks at the boy as he is dying.  The boy realizes it happened just the way it did when he controlled the puppets.  At that moment, the boy realizes he is behind the puppet theater again controlling the puppets.

Resolution:

The magician is proud of the boy and starts calling him George instead of boy.  He begins teaching George magic.

Literary Elements:

Allusion is used extensively in this book.  Each character that the boy meets in the Land of Story are well-known figures from nursery rhymes and children's books.  Irony is another element present in the book.  It is ironic that the boy searches and searches for Saint George, only to become the figure of Saint George at the end.