Wizard at Work [Paperback]

The wizard has big summer plans: to garden, to fish, and to nap. The only thing better would be if he had someone nice to share the days with. But the only people who show up want him to rescue yet another princess, lift the usual vile curse, confront a fearsome ghost, deal with a pack of magical hooligans, harvest a crop of golden cucumbers, and on and on. . . .

A wizard's work is never done!

The laugh-out-loud adventures of a wizard on vacation.

[star] The most entertaining magical world since Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest . . . Another winner. --Kirkus Reviews(starred review)

Vande Velde knows her way around fairy tales and fantasy and has a wicked sense of humor about both. --The Bulletin

Lighthearted and sly. --Booklist

How It All Starts

The wizard was minding his own business-well, mostly-when the witch either put a hex on him or didn't.

It happened like this: The wizard was a young man who often magically disguised himself to look like an old man because that was how people expected a wizard to look. Because he ran a school for young wizards, he spent the school year looking like an old man, for he figured he'd get little respect from his students if they guessed he was only a bit older than they. So once school was over for the year, it was a relief to take off his magical disguise and relax-sort of like taking off shoes that are too tight and fancy clothes that you've been worried about catching on something or spilling something on.

After what seemed an exceptionally harsh winter and a spring that surely had taken longer than usual to arrive, he had packed the last of his students off for home. On this, the first day of summer vacation, he magically transported himself to the village of Saint Wayne the Stutterer. Saint Wayne was not one of the major saints, and the village was a small one. The wizard knew most of the people there, and most ol³n