Octagon Magic by Andre Norton (1967; reprint 2005 by Starscape)

Second in Andre Norton’s Magic Books series, Octagon Magic is Norton at her best and most surreal in children’s fiction.

Lorrie Mallard lived with her grandmother in Canada until her grandmother became sick and had to be cared for by a friend. Now living in the U.S. with an aunt, homesick Lorrie has trouble fitting in. She doesn’t like gossip, giggling, and listening to pop music with the girl next door. She hates it when the boys on the street call her Canuck and chase her around. But when they chase a kitten that belongs to the mysterious Octagon House, where a witch supposedly lives, Lorrie runs to the kitten’s rescue — and finds escape for herself as well.

For Octagon House holds its own secrets. Gentle Miss Ashemeade couldn’t be less like a wicked witch, nor is her cook, Hallie. Miss Ashemeade sits at an embroidery frame, surrounded by fine threads and special golden needles, and her sitting room is lined with museum-quality needlework. She teaches Lorrie some of her art, but more, she allows Lorrie to explore any room of the house — that is, any room that will allow her in. And the room that calls to her is the room that contains a miniature Octagon House. No mere plaything is this dollhouse. Keys appear in the drawers at the base. Lifelike dolls inhabit the drawers. And when she places the dolls and rides the magnificent rocking horse that stands near the house, Lorrie is transported into the past to witness the secrets of Octagon House.

Who — or what — is Miss Ashemeade? Is she really as old as Lorrie’s rockinghorse visions seem to tell her? Who is Hallie? What ever happened to the people who sought and found refuge at Octagon House? And what will happen to Miss Ashemeade if the plans to run a new superhighway straight through the Octagon House property are approved? Can Lorrie and her friends save Octagon House?

Steel Magic by Andre Norton (1965; Starscape reprint, 1995)

Though the great science fiction writer Andre Norton has passed away, her work lives on forever. Norton wrote for all ages, and her works for young people received no less care, attention, and imagination than her books for adults.

Starscape is now reprinting Norton’s beloved Magic Books series of middle-grade novels. Though a series, each book stands alone, with a separate cast of characters.

Steel Magic is a classic quest tale. Three children, visiting their uncle somewhere in New England, set out to explore the overrun gardens and woods, planted a generation or two ago by a mysterious Mr. Brosius, who then disappeared. Fans of Arthurian legends will come to instant alert at that name — Brosius? Ambrosius? As in the surname sometimes ascribed to Merlin?

But of course.

The boys, Eric and Greg, want to find a lake that supposedly lies in the tangle of woods. Their sister, Sara, tags along, the picnic basket she won at a fun fair firmly in hand, despite her terror of spiders. They find the lake, and in the middle of it, find the ruin of a small castle. Thinking it no more than a folly built by the former owners, the children enter — and find not a playhouse, but a doorway to Avalon.

There they find Avalon in serious trouble from dark forces. Only they who are capable of touching cold iron can find the three treasures that have been lost, but only if they can overcome their own fears. With the help of magical guides and the steel utensils in the picnic basket, Sara, Eric, and Greg set out to save Avalon and their own world.

While the pattern of the story and the ending are somewhat predictable, the telling of the three children’s adventures reveals Norton’s halmark imagination and surreal visions of her fantasy worlds.

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett, illustrated by Brett Helquist (Scholastic Press, 2006)

In Blue Balliett’s sequel to the fantasy mystery Chasing Vermeer, Calder Pillay’s old friend Tommy Segovia returns to Chicago’s University School one week before the end of the school year. But everything has changed for Tommy. He no longer lives across the street from Calder, but instead lives in an apartment overlooking Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Robie house, several blocks away. And Calder went and made friends with a girl Tommy hardly knows, one Petra Andalee. Tommy longs to do something that will create a big splash so that he can feel important. When the class learns that the Robie house has been slated for demolition, and the class makes a decision to save it, Tommy searches for a chance to find an important clue. But Calder’s insistence that he make friends with Petra creates rifts among all three, and they set out, like points of a triangle, in three directions, chasing down clues about fish, dragons, and the Invisible Man, all to save the Robie house from demolition — and from thieves.

As in Chasing Vermeer, The Wright 3 weaves together solid clues and fantastic events into one satisfying mystery, but the fantasy elements are even more evident: a mysterious cloaked man who tosses a copy of The Invisible Man from a train, an identical copy to the one Petra picked up at a bookstore; a jade fish that Tommy finds that may be the very fish Frank Lloyd Wright carried as a talisman; and the Robie house itself, that shrugs villains off of its roof and speaks in whispers to its friends.

Brett Helquist’s charming illustrations weave a story of their own. Readers should search them for signs of an animal that is important in the story, and watch for its transformation at the end.

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, illustrated by Brett Helquist (Scholastic Press, 2004).

If you like your mysteries with a touch of fantasy, then Chasing Vermeer is for you. When a well-known Vermeer painting goes missing, sixth graders Calder Pillay and Petra Andalee decide to track it down. First working alone as rivals, the two must join forces to make sense of patterns, coincidence, and the significance of blue M&Ms to unravel the mystery before the thief makes good on his promise to destroy the priceless painting.

Author Blue Balliett fills her fantasy mystery with delightful quirks of place and character. Her two youthful detectives live in Hyde Park in Chicago, where they attend the University School, founded by John Dewey and running on very student-centered principles. Petra and Calder’s teacher, Miss Hussey, seems youthful and scatterbrained, but holds a mystery or two herself — as does the elderly Mrs. Sharp that the children befriend. Calder carries around a set of pentominoes, a twelve-piece set of mathematical tools used to explore geometry, and which Calder uses to explore patterns related to the mystery. Petra has a penchant for writing and uses writing to clarify her ideas. But she also seems to have a hidden talent for “hearing” people who aren’t there — including the woman in the Vermeer painting.

Brett Helquist’s illustrations portray the characters perfectly, and hide an additional mystery: within the illustrations, readers can hunt for hidden pentominoes that spell out a secret message.