Thirteen-year-old Nita, tormented by a gang of bullies because she won't fight back, finds the help she needs in a library book on wizardry which guides her into another dimension.

This is an excellent book about two young teens who are having a hard time fitting in at school and suddenly embark upon a strange journey where their wits are tested. ( )

The title and cover of this book were so intriguing that I bought this book on a whim instead of reading it first-big mistake. This book was so dull and slow that I didn't even finish it (I ended up giving it away!) The book starts out great, a girl who loves to read is in the library when she sees a book on the shelf she's never seen before: 'So You Want to be a Wizard'. The book pretty much goes downhill for me after that--she learns how to do magic (which in this book is very boring and complicated to do), and then she meets another kid training to be a wizard, and yea the book got so boring I put it down after that. I tried very hard to keep reading to see when we get to meet some dragons (like on the cover) or SOMETHING exciting, but i just couldn't do it. ( )

In a twisted version of Manhattan, Nita finds a library book giving career guidance entitled So You Want to Be a Wizard. After following the books guidelines, she finds herself in another dimension caught up in a battle between good and evil. Both humor and suspense form the basis of the Young Wizards series, of which this is the first title.

I just finished So You Want to Be a Wizard By Diane Duane. Its a pretty good read, aimed at the Tween Crowd (10 - 14 or so). I believe it even won a few awards, or at least thats what the cover proclaims. Its a pretty typical Modern Kids find Magic and save the world bit. This genre has grown hugely with the success of the Harry Potter Series, but this book was first, well at least before the hype.

It starts off with 13 year old Nita running away from a pack of bullies intent on beating her to a pulp. She runs into the library to hide and finds a book titles So You Want to Be a Wizard. She checks it out on a whim, and takes her first step into wizardry. Along the way, she meets Kit, another lonely kid with a book teaching him magic. Together, they find that they can do magic that they can't do alone. In search of a missing NASA pen that writes upside down, they summon a white hole who's curious about planets. Together, Fred, Kit, and Nina trek into an alternate planet where the great destroyer is intent on destroying the universe. Its up to them to find the Book of Night With Moon, and thwart the Destroyer.

I think I've been reading too many of these types of books. Its well written, aimed at kids, with a very distinct Good vs Bad Message. As typical with books like this, the parent figures are mostly out of the picture, and the kids have to figure everything out themselves. I think my biggest concern with the book is how easy Magic came to them, It took just a few days for them to be magic beginners to be fully fledged magicians. Also, there was no guidance from other older, experienced wizards. Everything they did came from a book. The ending also seemed a bit rushed, not the way the world was saved, but in the wrap up at the end.

So to wrap it up, its a well written book, and would be a good book to give to a young Harry Potter Fan who has read it all, or as introduction to the world of fantasy. I think adults will appreciate it, but not necessarily find it that great. I will not read this again, or any of the other books in the series, but I plan on giving it to my niece when she is older and will appreciate a good fantasy. ( )

What I liked about the book is the live things that normally don’t talk can talk .A support of this is that a car talks to Kit. Also the tree talks to Nita and the stone statues come alive. I liked this book because it has great vocabulary that I can picture myself in the book. Also she used great words like leaped or scaly or even metallic. ( )

As an adult, I found I just didn't have the patience to get into the book.

This is a book aimed at children, but which works quite happily if you read it as an adult.

Nita is being bullied at school and takes refuge in the library, a familiar hiding place for her. She discovers a new book, "So You Want to Be a Wizard" which, as you might guess teachers her how to be a wizard.

She meets another wizard her age, some older ones, and has a string of adventures all in a short, easy to read book.

Without giving the plot away, there is a quite nasty parallel world, sacrifice, and quite a lot of fancy word-play that goes on. It works really well, and would make a fun story for a child or an amusing hour or two diversion for an adult that enjoys fantasy books. ( )

I read this...well, started to...to see if it would be right for my child. It was so awkward and poorly written that I just chucked it in the trash. ( )

Lots of fun and has the type of detail while not boring the reader that a lot of books can't obtain. Everything that happens in the book isn't glamorous and the characters do struggle and lose friends along the way. And in my opinion the title just too quirky to ignore! ( )

Nita and Kit run across separate copies of a book, and then into each other as they attempt spells. They're caught up in universe altering events just because they don't want to be beat up at school any more.
The plot jumped from event to event, getting a pen back leading to finding a Gate, leading to going through it, and then having to find the return gate, and more. It's a fun ride though the author didn't spend much time fleshing out Nita beyond the first chapter (she's a bookworm and a pacifist). I'm interested in seeing how she progresses in the next book. ( )

***Caution: may be spoilers***
This book is much better than I was expecting from the blurb. Comparison with the much more recent 'Harry Potter' series is misplaced. Nita's world of school bullies, uncomprehending parents, and sympathetic librarians is familiar mainstream children's-book territory, offering a solid backdrop to the fantasy element. In its otherworld sections, set in a dark, almost post-apocalyptic New York - overrun with predatory helicopters and feral taxicabs - and in its interlacing of magical fantasy with elements of science and myth, this book hits a tone closer to Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife, or something by Madeleine L'Engle. There is a touch of silliness in the random objects produced by the burping white hole, but there is a seriousness of intent behind many of the book's ideas. I found the exchange between Nita and the rowan tree to be particularly thoughtful: if trees were sentient, what would they think of the ungrateful humans for whom they have prepared the earth? The setting probably has more resonance for readers who know New York. The book stands well by itself, not feeling like the first of a series, partly because of the cosmic scale of its finale: what sequel could you have, after saving the whole world and offering Satan a chance of redemption on the way? MB 15-ii-2008 ( )

pages read: 264- 386
This book is about a young girl, Nita Callahan, who runs away from bullies and into a library. She discovers a book that she has never seen before. She thinks the book is just plain fiction and the wizard spells and curses will never work. But, shes wrong.
The main character is Nita, who is frequently bullied in and out of school. She wants to get back at them by trying out these wizardly spells. Some work, but others don't. Soon enough she finds herself flying through space, fighting dragons, and meeting mystical creatures.
There was not really anything in this book that i could relate to because I never get bullied or I don't time travel through space and cast magical spells.
The main character did change. SHe became more mature. For example, she did not try to get revenge at the end.
I did not like how there were too unbelieveable characters in this book. It was a bit confusing because of all the characters that will never exist.
I would recommend this game to early teens. This is a great book because of its supenseful excitment.

So You Want to be a Wizard - Diane Duane (8/10)
YA fantasy; book 1 of the Young Wizards series; reread; audiobook.
I read the first three books in this series many years ago, when I was a lot closer to being a young adult myself. So I was delighted to see the books available as audioboks. I enjoyed meeting Nita and Kit all over again and going on their first wizardly adventure with them and hope to find time to listen to more of the books in the not too distant future. The narrator was fine, although every now and then the accents she put on for the children did great a little. All the same, it wasn't enough to distract from my enjoyment of the book. ( )

The start of a very imaginitive series of stories, this is in my opinion one of the weaker offerings. It's good in that it introduces the central characters and concepts but I found most of the later plots to be a lot more gripping and less confusing (although the latter could just have been because I was more used to this world by then). ( )

So You Want to be a Wizard (Duane, Diane)
Nita is an avid reader without a lot of friends. She finds a book on the shelf at the library called So You Want to be a Wizard although the library cannot find any information on the book. She takes the book home only to find that it is a real prescription of how to be a wizard with spells and ways to find other books of spells. She meets a boy named Kit that also has this book. Nita receives a pen as a gift and cherishes the pen only to find that she has lost it. The only way to get the pen back is to use the help of the spells in the wizard book. This is a creatively written and involved book with a lot of action and suspense. Nita and Kit go through a series of events to retrieve the pen with the help of Fred, the White Hole who guides them through New York City and teaches them how to deal with evil cars, a city wide blackout, and how to put the city back to the way it was and return to Rose Avenue. ( )

The real harm Harry Potter has done to fantasy fans was to create this neverending series of, well, serieses. It's not good enough any more just to write a good book, you have to write the first book of an Epic. I guess none of these writers have ever gone back to see how well Sorcerer's Stone stands up on its own as a story, because they all seem to spend so much time on developing characters rather than, you know, the plot, that you tend to lose interest before you ever reach the second one. #2 is probably better, but I doubt I'll ever get around to finding out.

(Update: This book was written before Harry Potter so these comments don't really apply. Thanks bluesalamanders) ( )

This is one of those books I wish I had known about when I was a kid because I would have loved it. (I mean, I still loved it, but I also would have loved it then.) Nita is a rather geeky 12-year-old girl who is sick and tired of getting beat up by the meaner kids at her school. One day, as she's running from them, she ducks into the local library and hides in the children's room while the librarian gets rid of the bullies. It's here that a strange book on the shelves literally jumps out and grabs her. The book is called So You Want to Be a Wizard and it appears to be a career guide to wizardry. Intrigued, Nita takes the book home and begins reading. Although part of her thinks it's a joke, she dares to read the Wizard's Oath from the book... and her world is never the same. Nita is thrust into a world of magic- trees can talk to her, and she meets a friend named Kit (Christopher) who's also a new wizard-in-training. The two of them decide to cast some spells to get the bullies off their backs and before you know it, they're thrust into an alternate universe, a place with no light and where everything is out to get them.

There's no Hogwarts here; these kids are figuring it out on their own. And it'll be the most dangerous mission of their lives.

This book is pretty dark and a more than a little bit violent, but also funny at times. The characters are great and Duane really gets you into her world. I can't wait to read the next one! ( )

Nita and Kit are middle school kids who just happen to be wizards too. In a battle that quickly assumes epic proportions, they fight to save the world from chaos and destruction.

I found this book to be rather over-rated. SLJ gave it a starred review when it first came out, but I had a hard time really getting into it. The magic was imaginative, but the world was under-developed and I had a hard time getting into the characters. I was also repeatedly annoyed by the boys-talk-with-cars-and-machines, girls-talk-with-plants stereotype. And the whole white-hole as character that burps up weird stuff was odd and distracting to me, but would probably appeal to the 10-13 set. For middle readers who can’t get enough of Harry Potter-like fantasies, this would be a decent choice, though. ( )

This book took me a while to get into, and I wasn't nearly as absorbed in it as many of the other fantasy/kiddielit books I've read. The action was good, but the central plot conceit seemed kind of silly at first - fighting the Destroyer of Light all because you want your space-pen back? It would be really adaptable into an excellent screenplay, I think; heavy on the special-effects action and light on the expository details of how the magic actually works. However, in book form, if felt a little light without those details. ( )

It was very discriptive which is good because it has magical dilemmas I've never been ( )

An early precursor to the Harry Potter phenomenon. I must say, at first I wasn’t sure I liked this book because it got into lots of equations/spells/etc. But, I ended up finding it very uplifting. While I see they toss this around as similar to Harry Potter, it’s quite different as Nita and Kit (our main characters) don’t go off to wizards schoo, they learn wizardry from a book. Recommended highly. ( )

My favorite book of all time!!! ( )