Jackson & Jenks, Master Magicians

by Dan Frischman

Best friends Darren Jackson and Jamie Jenks are struggling to become a professional teen magic duo. The only their tricks always fail, and they sadly lay claim to being the worst magicians ever. But that s about to change. A trip to a thrift shop leads them to a mysterious force which turns Jamie into a real magician. Now able to do anything at all, world fame and fortune quickly follow as well as a world of trouble when they turn the President of the United States into a four-pound rodent. On the run, the boys must evade the police and the FBI, not to mention a tyrannical fellow magician, before their luck runs out forever.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2009

Reviews

[David Ambrose]

I saw somewhere that Arvid from Head of the Class (Dan Frischman in real life) had written a young adult novel about teenage magicians. I watched a lot of television when I was young, including Head of the Class, so I thought I'd give it a try. It was easy to find a used copy online. In all I would say it's a good first effort. It's entertaining in parts and it's a quick read. In some places it's a little crude or random. I can't tell if it was self-published; at least, I couldn't find anything about the publisher. I think it would have benefited from an experienced editor's guiding hand. I'll gladly add this to my list of 80s experiences, having read Arvid's novel.

[Sourya Dey]

I stumbled upon this book by accident and decided to give it a go. What followed was a hilarious 3-hour joyride through 237 pages of childish fun. Reminiscent of Gerald Durrell, or R. L. Stine without the scares.

[Jerricka Habib]

The story is good for middle grade or younger. I would caution parents to read the last few pages of Chapter 7 about the talent agent, Ainsley Grosspucker.

[Brenda]

This was such a fun book! Our characters are 15 but the writing style felt geared more toward younger kids, but it was done perfectly—it never felt like it was patronizing to younger readers. The characters weren’t overly simplified and missing basic reasoning.

Jamie was a little too much of a dunderhead, but it played well into the story. He’s like Twister from Rocket Power or Phil from Rugrats or any other token idiot from a show. While it’s a bit over the top, it’s fun and hilarious.

The plot itself was definitely fun. Magic and the secret service and guinea pigs and human slinkies and aliens...there literally was a barrage of randomness that made it a highly entertaining read.