Everyday Magic: The Adventures of Alfie Blackstack
By: Jess Kidd / Narrated By: Chris Devon
Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
Jess Kidd’s foray into Kids: Death! Mayhem! Witches on vacuum cleaners! Huzzah!
Each time I check out a book’s landing page and find that the Huzzah-Reviews are written oooonly by other authors? Oh my, I’m reminded of the sitcom “Frasier” episode wherein he’s asked to write a glowing blurb for a fellow therapist’s new book… it’s a horrrrrible book, but? The author is smokin’ hot, and Frasier desperately wants to frolic with her. Glowing blurbs written solely by fellow writers? Hmmm, thinketh I to m’self: It’s an “I’ll do this for you, if you return the gesture for my next book, yes?” affair.
I don’t trust them. And those types of blurbs are pretty much aaaallll Jess Kidd’s middle-grade Kids book, Everyday Magic, has. Which fazed me not one iota as, when dearest Sis put a freakin’ Jess Kidd audiobook on her list for a Birthday Listen, a Birthday Review? Dude! It’s Jess Kidd! SOLD from the get-go in SPITE the dearth of reviews and blurbs from fellow Irish writers.
-But- would it be lamentable? How else to explain the lack of kudos?!
Oh nooooo, indeed! This was a delight from the very intro where Jess Kidd does her Jess Kidd Thing and starts it all off with young Alfie Blackstack becoming an orphan almost imMEDiately, Mum dancing in sausages in front of a hungry lion (MOST ill-advised!), and Dad leaving the timid Alfie behind to row out in a leaky boat during a storm to check out weird-patoot birds. DEATH!!! Is that soooo J. Kidd, or what?!? Kids book? Yup!
Nobody in his humdrum little hometown can take him, relatives of his are looked for far and wide, and PHEW! two aunties are found (Cuz really, who on earth wants this fearful little kid who wears a bright orange Anorak no matter what the weather?!) in the weird village of Little Snoddington. Noooo, Alfie bemoans his fate, wondering why his parents couldn’t love him enough to stay with him. Sure, he’s never been courageous and daredevil-ish like they were in life, but he woulda loved watching a quiet little waterfall while they were having their adventures.
Alas, change happens during Life, and so Alfie is off to Switherbroom Hall to live with the delightfully welcoming tho’ decidedly odd Aunt Gertie, and her sister, the fierce and sometimes wart-y Aunt Zita… who is sooo decidedly (UN)welcoming… And oh yeah? The pair are oddities in Little Snoddington, and oh yeah? The pair are witches!
Even as Alfie is tryyyyying to come to terms with aaalll this, maybe find some way of not giving into despair, like, every single moment of every single day (No, really: Aunt Zita is frightening!!!), even more change happens when a Circus comes to town and Alfie is thrust into a “friendship” with the utterly fearless Calypso Fagan, circus-girl extraordinaire. I put friendship in ““s cuz, you see, Alfie doesn’t have friends. Have I mentioned that pretty much everything freaks him out? Have I mentioned that weird bright orange Anorak?
But Kidd starts the story strong, and she adds situation after situation to where Alfie is challenged in small (And HUGE!) ways as it all progresses. He acts fearfully; he acts… well… kinda sorta with a bravery started with swallowing his distress and moving forward. It doesn’t hurt one iota that Calypso as written is a true delight, seeing past his oddities and just extending kindness, cuz that’s just who she is.
Then her little sister, Nova, who’s been getting into straaaange predicaments, winds up swallowed up in a doorknob that turns into a snow globe… and she just haaappens to be holed up in there with an Imp who just happens to be The Imp King.
-And- to release Nova from the little snow globe, Alfie and Calypso are going to have to somehow swipe the key from The Most Wicked Head-Witch to rule in, like, practically forEVER! No seriously, she’s WICKED, and Aunt Zita has already been imprisoned in a bottle somewhere far away for writing critical opinion pieces of said Head-Witch.
The game is ON for Alfie, Calypso, and Aunt Gertie, and it looks like things are going to devolve into certain All Out Witch Warfare.
How can this be any better? Well, let’s add to this already tremendously fun story with effortlessly over-the-top (In a good, witchy, magic-all-the-time way!) narration by Chris Devon. There are oooooodles of characters in this story, and good golly gosh are things zipping along lightning-quick as things progress. Devon delivers it all, and he was just sooo spot-on with his characterizations that I loved most of them, loved hating some of them, plus his pacing was perfection. I’ve begun forgiving m’self for jacking up my listening speeds as stories get more dramatic, preferring to view it not as a failure to delay gratification on my part, and seeing it all as just stellar writing and perfect narration instead. What on earth is wrong with: Just HAD To See WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!
Nothing, my dear fellow Accomplice; there’s absolutely nothing wrong with tapping into the joy of a kid tucked in bed, listening to Mum or Dad (Or Aunties) as bedtime tales get breathtakingly exciting and FUN.
So here it is: My glowing two cents to add to glowing Irish author blurbs. And here it is: My almighty Huzzah to what appears to be the start of a solidly enchanting series. Nope, it ain’t Kidd’s usual Dark Dark Darkness.
But it IS Kidd writing Magic as she sees it, Magic as two little kids find it and carry on despite odds stacked against them.
And dude? Kidd had me at Mum shimmying in a string o’ sausages in front of a hungry lion…! And she’ll keep me going with that grand ol’ finale! Truly a Huzzah-ish achievement!
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