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Magic Attic Club #2
Alison Goes for the Gold
Alison travels through the mirror to the Junior World Cup Skating Championship in Germany and she skates to the finals. Alison wants to win—until she tangles on the ice with the cool-tempered Katja. Can she be friends with her rival? Who will take home the gold?
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 3, 2023
Found this in my neighborhood free library and had a wave of nostalgia. I remember reading some of this series as a kid and vaguely remember one of my friends having a doll or two.
Overall this book is very 90’s. Pretty cheesy and over the top. It is short and a fast read. However you really need to have read the first book in the series to understand what is happening with the “magic attic” there is no explanation for how this works, why, how they get back, it’s weird. Luckily I read it years ago so had a slight memory, but still felt it was kind of odd how it all worked. Anyways, cute throwback to my childhood, but not written well enough to be long lasting and interesting to kids now.
Overall this book is very 90’s. Pretty cheesy and over the top. It is short and a fast read. However you really need to have read the first book in the series to understand what is happening with the “magic attic” there is no explanation for how this works, why, how they get back, it’s weird. Luckily I read it years ago so had a slight memory, but still felt it was kind of odd how it all worked. Anyways, cute throwback to my childhood, but not written well enough to be long lasting and interesting to kids now.
April 16, 2024
Yeah, I'm back on my kid-lit, nostalgia-reads nonsense. I picked up a pile of 1990s Magic Attic Club books recently, so buckle in.
Magic Attic was always obviously trying to grab a piece of the American Girl pie: Here, have a collection of dolls and a series of books, and each book has a corresponding outfit and accessories for the doll. As a kid, I enjoyed their catalogs and read a few of the books (including this one), but went no further.
Where MAC differs from AG is that their characters are contemporary and their adventures are all over the place. The central premise is that this group of friends make friends with an older woman in their neighborhood, and she invites them to play dress up in her attic — but in the attic is a magic mirror that transports the girls to a place and time that corresponds to their outfit.
Which felt like some serious wish fulfillment, at least to Kid Me.
Now, the premise gets dodgy in a couple of places. One is that, once they go through the mirror, people just seem to know them as though they've been there all along. So is this time travel or alternate reality or body hopping or just a little pocket fantasy that exists only when the girls are there? As far as I know, that's never explored. And in this kind of series, I wouldn't really expect it to be, but the questions are right there.
The other element that the series handwaves is that the girls often get instant knowledge or skills that go along with the outfit. It happens with ice skating here, where Allison can immediately skate at a level far above her real life experience, and also magically has knowledge of her choreography. It's necessary for the kind of "what if I were a…" adventure that MAC wants to tell, though it does seem unfair for Allison to jump in and place as high as she does over girls who have been working their tails off to get here. (Don't think about that! the book wants to tell us. Magic!!)
Structurally, Magic Attic books — or at least the ones I remember, we'll see if they ever deviate — are a sandwich. We see our protagonist facing a challenge in her everyday life, then she goes to Ellie's and has an adventure through the mirror, and then she comes back and resolves her problems at home.
In this one, Allison has just been nominated for class president, and is taking it remarkably seriously — friends, this fifth grader has a platform — but when her posters are torn down, it looks like her opponent isn't playing fair. It's a fairly standard '90s kid plot.
In the attic, Allison chooses a figure skating outfit (everything magically fits because of course it does, remember the magic?), and finds herself at a competition in Berlin with a multi-national group of girls. She quickly finds that the skater to beat is a German girl named Katja who is very serious, seems unfriendly, and is probably dealing with emotional abuse from her coach/father. That's the problem I'd like to see solved, but it's just a background detail here.
One of Allison's character traits is that she's sporty and very competitive ("McCanns play to win!" one older brother reminds her, re: the class election), so she's quick to square off against Katja, including in a fairly ridiculous wurst eating contest, but she's also self-aware enough to check herself and be genuinely happy for Katja when she ultimately wins the competition.
And you know the rules of races and competitions in kid-lit. First you lose one so we can talk about how you handle losing, and then you win so we can have a nice celebratory ending. So of course she wins the election for class president.
Overall, the book is fairly slight, but it was a fun skate down memory lane, and I wouldn't have any issues handing it to a kid today.
Magic Attic was always obviously trying to grab a piece of the American Girl pie: Here, have a collection of dolls and a series of books, and each book has a corresponding outfit and accessories for the doll. As a kid, I enjoyed their catalogs and read a few of the books (including this one), but went no further.
Where MAC differs from AG is that their characters are contemporary and their adventures are all over the place. The central premise is that this group of friends make friends with an older woman in their neighborhood, and she invites them to play dress up in her attic — but in the attic is a magic mirror that transports the girls to a place and time that corresponds to their outfit.
Which felt like some serious wish fulfillment, at least to Kid Me.
Now, the premise gets dodgy in a couple of places. One is that, once they go through the mirror, people just seem to know them as though they've been there all along. So is this time travel or alternate reality or body hopping or just a little pocket fantasy that exists only when the girls are there? As far as I know, that's never explored. And in this kind of series, I wouldn't really expect it to be, but the questions are right there.
The other element that the series handwaves is that the girls often get instant knowledge or skills that go along with the outfit. It happens with ice skating here, where Allison can immediately skate at a level far above her real life experience, and also magically has knowledge of her choreography. It's necessary for the kind of "what if I were a…" adventure that MAC wants to tell, though it does seem unfair for Allison to jump in and place as high as she does over girls who have been working their tails off to get here. (Don't think about that! the book wants to tell us. Magic!!)
Structurally, Magic Attic books — or at least the ones I remember, we'll see if they ever deviate — are a sandwich. We see our protagonist facing a challenge in her everyday life, then she goes to Ellie's and has an adventure through the mirror, and then she comes back and resolves her problems at home.
In this one, Allison has just been nominated for class president, and is taking it remarkably seriously — friends, this fifth grader has a platform — but when her posters are torn down, it looks like her opponent isn't playing fair. It's a fairly standard '90s kid plot.
In the attic, Allison chooses a figure skating outfit (everything magically fits because of course it does, remember the magic?), and finds herself at a competition in Berlin with a multi-national group of girls. She quickly finds that the skater to beat is a German girl named Katja who is very serious, seems unfriendly, and is probably dealing with emotional abuse from her coach/father. That's the problem I'd like to see solved, but it's just a background detail here.
One of Allison's character traits is that she's sporty and very competitive ("McCanns play to win!" one older brother reminds her, re: the class election), so she's quick to square off against Katja, including in a fairly ridiculous wurst eating contest, but she's also self-aware enough to check herself and be genuinely happy for Katja when she ultimately wins the competition.
And you know the rules of races and competitions in kid-lit. First you lose one so we can talk about how you handle losing, and then you win so we can have a nice celebratory ending. So of course she wins the election for class president.
Overall, the book is fairly slight, but it was a fun skate down memory lane, and I wouldn't have any issues handing it to a kid today.
August 26, 2017
I think what throws me about these books is how easy it comes to the kids to step in and take the starring role. So in this book, Alison puts on a skating costume and knows the routine and can just...skate. Which I think gives an unfair view of ice skating as a sport to the reader. We don't see the hard work except in passing and even then it doesn't make much of an impression. You don't have a sense of how many YEARS you would need to skate - every single day - to get to this point.
I guess that's part of the magic of the attic. I just wish that despite all that, that maybe a more realistic view could be given - not just give the reader a taste of the accomplishment that comes at the end, but also a real look at what it takes to get there.
Overall, while there are things I liked in this book (how she approached her platform in the election for example) there were enough things that I thought just too unrealistic to take this book seriously. Which is too bad. I think they had an opportunity here to really show the reader something special and interesting.
I guess that's part of the magic of the attic. I just wish that despite all that, that maybe a more realistic view could be given - not just give the reader a taste of the accomplishment that comes at the end, but also a real look at what it takes to get there.
Overall, while there are things I liked in this book (how she approached her platform in the election for example) there were enough things that I thought just too unrealistic to take this book seriously. Which is too bad. I think they had an opportunity here to really show the reader something special and interesting.
February 10, 2026
I really do enjoy rereading this series as an adult. I’m starting to find even more of myself in these characters than I did as a child.
I like that Alison learned to be okay with second place in that ice skating competition. She let herself feel rotten about it for a little bit and then moved on. Queen behavior!
I also like that this was a solo attic trip for Alison. Sometimes, we need to spend that time in our own energy to unwind and, also, to learn more about ourselves. I am all for independent enrichment time!
I like that Alison learned to be okay with second place in that ice skating competition. She let herself feel rotten about it for a little bit and then moved on. Queen behavior!
I also like that this was a solo attic trip for Alison. Sometimes, we need to spend that time in our own energy to unwind and, also, to learn more about ourselves. I am all for independent enrichment time!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2022
This was never my favorite Magic Attic installment, but I enjoyed rereading it. I didn't remember that it was set in Germany, and enjoyed being able to read almost all of the German words and phrases.
May 21, 2017
How the heck did she just instantly know how to ice skate? Lol
September 11, 2018
Lizzie: I love this book it really has a good moral. I think all people should read the series.
September 28, 2019
Loved it
August 25, 2024
It was lovely sharing this childhood treasure with my 10 month old.
August 19, 2012
Out of all "The Magic Attic Club" girls, Alison is probably the most grounded. Her stories are the most personal. She deals with her conflicts in the most 'real world' way. With that kind of gravity, it makes sense that one of the first books in the series would be all about her.
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January 24, 2009"I think this book is so-so."
November 23, 2010
Growing up, I loved all the magic attic books. They were fun and very imaginative.
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March 25, 2010e
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2011
I really liked this book and how it taught girls how to be competitive but still be good sportsmen.
Read
April 30, 2016Did I read every available book where the main character was named Alison/Allison/Ali/Ally/Allie? Yes. Also probably all the ones with redheaded main characters too.
May 26, 2023
Alison Goes for the Gold (Magic Attic Club #2) by Catherine Connor - Have fun with Alison on this ice skating adventure from the magic attic! Happy Reading!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews