May Magic by Ron Roy, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Bradley and Brian Pinto try to use a visit to a magic show featuring Hypo the Hypnotist as a sneaky way of getting a duck for a pet, only to discover their plan has gone awry when their Mom, after attending the performance, seems to turn into a duck, in May Magic, the fifth early chapter mystery for young readers in this series by Ron Roy.

Brian wants to start a business raising ducks for their feathers and down, but his Mother is firm in her refusal. "Running a business is hard work," she says. "Besides, I can't even get you to clean your side of the room." But with Mother's Day approaching, Brian comes up with a plan to get his way, buying tickets for his Mom to a local magic show and having Hypo hypnotize her into letting him have a duck. But the best laid plans of mice and men (or, in this case, ducks and boys) don't always turn out as expected, especially when the Bradley and Brian's Mom starts to exhibit strange duck-like behavior!

May Magic is an entertaining book featuring the younger siblings of the children introduced in the author's other series, "The A-to-Z Mysteries." The story has several funny scenes and will no doubt elicit some laughs along the way, though some readers may be slightly disappointed at the lack of a "mystery" here. The plot is more along the lines of a case of unintended consequences or be careful what you wish for, to be sure, a good lesson to learn, but not really one that requires any reasoning or investigation on the part of the boys and their friends.

May Magic is labeled by the publisher as RL 2.0 (2nd grade reading level). No Lexile measure has been determined for the book.

A complete list of titles in this series can be found at First Clues: Calendar Mysteries.

April Adventure
Random House (Paperback), February 2010
ISBN-13: 9780375861161; ISBN-10: 0375861165

June Jam
Random House (Paperback), March 2011
ISBN-13: 9780375861123; ISBN-10: 0375861122

May Magic

A Calendar Mystery by Ron Roy