The Big Shrink
The Big Shrink
Marigold allowed herself only a moment’s hesitation. She took a deep breath, summoned her magic, and felt the tingle in her hands.
Zwoop-plip-ploop! Nory, Elliott, Willa, Pepper, Sebastian, Zinnia, and Clyde – they shrank, one after the other. They were each now the height of a mouse, but not the width. Their bodies stayed proportional. They were teensy-tiny miniature versions of themselves.
And then, zwoop! Marigold was tiny, too. That was the part she’d been worried about, but it worked like a charm.
Ms. Starr’s Upside-Down Magic class is at it again in The Big Shrink, the sixth installment of the “Upside-Down Magic” series.
This time round, readers are introduced to Marigold, a fifth grader with a big problem. Like her classmates, Marigold’s magic is upside-down, or wonky. You see, Marigold is really good at shrinking things, but she can’t bring them back to full size.
Noticing Marigold’s frustration, Ms. Starr assigns her a tutor named Layla who has the magic touch when it comes to altering sizes. Layla makes Marigold feel confident and teaches her a technique to “big things up”, but she makes Marigold promise never to use it on another human being as her magic is still untested.
Then, things start to go from bad to worse for Marigold when Principal Gonzalez bans Dreggs, the tiny toy dragons that are all the rage at school right now. Marigold and her friend Nory decide that they have to take action by staging a peaceful protest. When Nory suggests that Marigold shrink her classmates in order to stage “The Big Shrink”, she is more than happy to oblige. The only problem is, her magic no longer works!
Written by the literary powerhouse trio of Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins, The Big Shrink is another fine addition to the “Upside-Down Magic” series. It is a fun-filled tale of one child’s quest to fit in and the lengths she will go to in order to keep her power. Fans of the series will be especially delighted with its newest installment.
Teresa Iaizzo is a librarian with the Toronto Public Library.