All the Magic in the World

by Wendy Hartmann

Lena is the clumsiest of the children - she can't climb trees, and is always falling over her own feet. But then Joseph the odd-job man shows her how to make pictures with string, hear the sea in a shell, and be a dancing princess.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Wendy Hartmann has been writing for many years, with more than 40 children’s books published, including, most recently, The African Orchestra. Her work ranges from concept and counting, beginner readers, high interest/low vocabulary readers to picture books. Her books have been selected for honor’s lists and nominated for awards for writing and illustration. Wendy lives in Cape Town, is married and has two daughters. In her spare time, she paints and has taken part in numerous exhibitions and has works in private collections in South Africa as well as overseas.

Reviews

[Makeba Nugent]

This book is all about the imagination of the child, how the most simplistic of objects "in the world" can create "imaginative possibilities" for a child playing with their friends.

The story is based around a little girl called Lena who "is clumsier than the other children". She can't climb trees and always falls over her own feet! " She is shown a " special tin...[by]... Joseph the odd-job man,...[who creates]... pictures with string, twists together a silver necklace and can hold the sound of the sea in a shell". This encourages Lena to use her imagination to have fun whilst the other children are "...[climbing]... the milk-wood tree".

Through Lena's encounter with Joseph, her perception that Joseph was a "silly old...[man who picked]... up junk to keep in a tin" had changed and this too changed the perception of her friends! The children believed that Joseph had "magic" in his tin. However, Joseph explains that there is no "magic" in his tin and asks Lena, as well as the reader "you tell me where the magic is found?" Meaning that the magic is the imagination and the power of our minds and the many possibilities it can create.

I feel that after reading this book, it could be powerful in motivating children in seeing their potential in being able to use their imaginations to create stories for example when working on story writing in Literacy. Or being able to create role plays through the use of props. I do feel however, that some children may not be able to grasp the idea of the story initially, and would probably need to be read a number of times for clarification of the language used to write the book.

I feel that this book could be enjoyed by children from the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through to Key Stage 2 (KS2) with adult support for clarification of language throughout.

[Vanessa Holzknecht]

This book shows how powerful your imagination can be. There are also hints of poverty in this book and diversity. This book could be used in a lesson about questioning or inferring, students could also learn more about their schematic to compare their prior knowledge about the objects in the book before they read it and then after they read the book. Students could be given a variety of everyday objects in class and asked to make another use out of the objects.

[Serge Smagarinsky]

Great concept but the text and plot could be tightened up a little.

[Megan]

We used to love reading this in our family, as the protagonist shares the same christian name as our daughter. And both girls have a tendency for magic.