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UNCLE MAGIC by Patricia Lee Gauch

UNCLE MAGIC

by Patricia Lee Gauch & illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray

Pub Date: Oct. 15th, 1992
ISBN: 0-8234-0937-6
Publisher: Holiday House

At family gatherings, Uncle Roy is Jackie's favorite—with quick good humor, he can pull a walnut out of her ear or make the mashed potatoes speak, but best is the rabbit he keeps in his pocket. Jackie truly believes it's alive until the night she falls asleep in the coats on the bed and wakes to find the rabbit puppet limp on the floor; it takes all ``Uncle Magic's'' ample gifts of persuasion for her to see that magic is something to meet halfway by believing in it. Gauch tells her story with warmth and lively turns of phrase that recommend it for sharing aloud; Ray sets it in the 40's, when kids were more credulous- -though this one looks too old to be fooled by a puppet. Still, the art glows with family camaraderie and is well sized for a group. An appealing portrait of a typical family character. (Picture book. 4-8)