Individual Novels:
- Red Head (1951)
- Mouse Manor (1952)
- Playing Possum (1955)
Magic Series
- Half Magic (1954)
- Knight's Castle (1956)
- Magic By the Lake (1957)
- The Time Garden (1958)
- Magic Or Not? (1959)
- The Well-Wishers (1960)
- Seven-Day Magic (1962)
Collection of all seven Magic stories:
- Edward Eager's Tales of Magic (omnibus) (2000)
Articles
- Eager, Edward. "Daily Magic." Horn Book, October 1958, p. 348-358 [18]
- Eager, Edward. "A Father's Minority Report." Horn Book, March 1948, 74, 104-109. [19]
Book descriptions
Half Magic was the #1 seller in America
Mouse ManorMouse Manor, illustrated by Beryl Bailey-Jones, is told from the viewpoint of Miss Myrtilla the mouse, sole occupant of the manor which she has inherited from her mother. She keeps house faithfully, dusting the family portraits and baking a bag pudding for her solitary Christmas dinner.
[20]
Playing Possum pictures by Paul Galdone.
Half MagicA dull summer is improved when Katharine, Mark, Jane and Martha find a magic talisman, which resembles a U.S. nickel. The catch is that the talisman only grants half of any wish made upon it--a wish to be on a desert island sends them to the Sahara desert, and their mother ends up halfway home when she wishes to return home during a dull visit to her relatives--which causes considerable confusion until the children learn to circumvent this by doubling their wishes
Magic by the LakeHere are the further adventures of Martha, Jane, Mark, and Katharine from
Half-Magic. Their summer vacation is enlivened by an entire magic lake, channelled through a talking, and somewhat grumpy, box turtle. They are stranded on a desert island, visit Ali-Baba's cave, and end up rescued by some children we see in the next book.
Half Magic and
Magic by the Lake take place in the 1920s, earlier than Eager's other novels.
Knight's CastleMartha's children, Roger and Ann, and their Aunt Katharine's children, Eliza and Jack, find that the combination of a toy castle, Scott's
Ivanhoe, and a little magic can build another wonderful series of adventures. A running theme in Eager's novels is his many references to the novels of E. Nesbit;
Knight's Castle pays explicit tribute to Nesbit's
The Magic City, and also makes an explicit reference to the cartoons of Charles Addams. (
Half Magic includes a reference to a short story by Saki.) Knight's Castle won Ohioana Book Award for Juvenile Literature in 1957.[21]
The Time GardenEliza, Jack, Roger, and Ann find an herb garden where thyme grows, which lets them travel through time (until the thyme is ripe). On one adventure they rescue their Aunt Jane, Uncle Mark and their mothers from an adventure they took as children. This gives an alternate view of one of the adventures in
Magic by the Lake.
Magic or Not?Laura, James, and their wonderful new neighbors, Kip and Lydia, wish up some summer adventures when the well in their new yard is more than they imagined.
Although all of Eager's other novels for children depict what are clearly adventures in supernatural magic,
Magic or Not and its sequel
The Well-Wishers are different in tone from his other books, because all of the "magical" events in these two novels are described ambiguously, with clues to permit possible non-supernatural explanations.
The Well-WishersThe children return to the magic well from
Magic or Not for another unpredictable series of adventures which might (or might not) be genuine magic.
Seven-Day MagicBarnaby, John, Susan, Abbie and Fredericka check out a tattered book from the library for seven days. Oddly, it carefully and correctly records every word they say. Soon they find that it not only records events, but creates new magical adventures.
Seven-Day Magic is Eager's only stand-alone novel; it is the only one which features children who do not appear in at least one other of his books. It does, refer to
Half Magic by name, and has a chapter where the children visit the very end of
Half Magic and what might have happened afterwards. It was his last book.
