Magic Or Madness

More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA

My name is Reason Cansino. I was named Reason because my mother, Sarafina, thought it was prettier than Logic or Rationality or Intellect . . . Reason has lived for fifteen years in the outback with her mother, Sarafina. They're on the run from Reason's grandmother, Esmeralda, who believes in magic and practices horrifying rituals. But when Sarafina suffers a mental breakdown, Reason is sent to the one place she fears most - Esmeralda's home in Sydney. Nothing about the house or Esmeralda is what Reason expected. For the first time she finds herself questioning her mother's teachings. Then, when she walks through Esmeralda's back door and finds herself on a New York City street, Reason is forced to face the shocking truth. Magic is real. And Reason is magic. The first book in Justine Larbalestier's thrilling trilogy brings readers from one country to another and through revelation upon revelation, leading to Reason's ultimate discovery of the price she must pay for the magic that lives in her blood.

In the second volume of Larbalestier's Magic trilogy, Reason Cansino has learned the painful truth: she must make the choice to use the magic that lives in her blood and die young or refuse to use the magic and lose her mind.

Regency England was a pivotal time of political uncertainty, with a changing monarchy, the Napoleonic Wars, and a population explosion in London. In Susanna Clarke's fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, the era is also witness to the unexpected return of magic. Locating the consequences of this eruption of magical unreason within the context of England's imperial history, this study examines Merlin and his legacy, the roles of magicians throughout history, the mythology of disenchantment, the racism at work in the character of Stephen Black, the meaning behind the fantasy of magic's return, and the Englishness of English magic itself. Looking at the larger historical context of magic and its links to colonialism, the book offers both a fuller understanding of the ethical visions underlying Clarke's groundbreaking novel of madness intertwined with magic, while challenging readers to rethink connections among national identity, rationality, and power.

In 1856 William Dove, a young tenant farmer, was tried and executed for the poisoning of his wife Harriet. The trial might have been a straightforward case of homicide, but because Dove became involved with Henry Harrison, a Leeds wizard, and demonstrated through his actions and words a strong belief in magic and the powers of the devil, considerable effort was made to establish whether these beliefs were symptomatic of insanity. It seems that Dove murdered his wife to hasten a prediction made by Harrison that he would remarry a more attractive and wealthy woman. Dove employed Harrison to perform various acts of magic, and also made his own written pact with the devil to improve his personal circumstances. The book will study Dove’s beliefs and Harrison’s activities within the rural and urban communities in which they lived, and examine how modern cultures attempted to explain this largely hidden mental world, which was so sensationally exposed. The Victorian period is often portrayed as an age of great social and educational progress. This book shows how beliefs dismissed by some Victorians as ‘medieval superstitions’ continued to influence the thoughts and actions of many people, viz most famously Conan `table tapper' Doyle.

Reason Cansino must uncover the secret of the magic in her family's background to save the lives of her friends Tom and Jay-tee.

"A 12-year-old boy uses his new magical powers and the help of a snarky fire hare to defeat his evil stepfather in a magical version of St. Paul"--

"Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston."