Posted in Books, General

Stories of Wizards and Witches by Enid Blyton

Posted on by Inesh Shenoy

— A Book Review by Inesh Shenoy 

I recently read a book called ‘Stories of Wizards and Witches’. This book consists of many many stories of magic and fantasy. It is an absolutely fabulous book. It is a story collection written by Enid Blyton. 

Enid Blyton was an English, children’s writer who lived between 1897 and 1968. She wrote over 700 books and they have been translated into 90 languages. The most famous among those books are the Adventures of Noddy, Adventures of the Wishing Chair, the Secret Seven, the Famous Five, and the Five Find-Outers. She won numerous awards and is regarded as one of the best authors ever. 

Inesh Shenoy of i3andCo showing off his copy of Stories of Wizards & Witches
Inesh Shenoy of i3andCo showing off his copy of Stories of Wizards & Witches

The Stories of Wizards and Witches has all sorts of magical creatures from fairies and unicorns, to wizards and witches, to pixie cats and elves. I remember our dad reading at least one story before putting us to bed every night when we were little. Since then, I have read this book again and again. Most of the stories also teach morals and good behaviour. 

The best part is that there are 25 stories in this book. And they are all about magical characters. I love anything that has to do with magic. There are also many illustrations all across the book by Mark Beech. This book is a wonderful book for bed-time stories. 

One of my favourite stories is The Strange Umbrella. It is about Tip Tap, a pixie who would always borrow others things, but never return them. Over time no one liked this and stopped lending their things to Tip Tap. One day he was going around asking for an umbrella, and of course everybody refused to lend him one. He asked Dame Trips if she would lend him her umbrella. When Trips told Tap she didn’t have one, he stole the umbrella that he found in her backyard. And then a lot of mishaps followed since the umbrella actually belonged to a mighty wizard. Read the book to find out what happens next, and many other stories! 

Enid Blyton’s writing is very fluent and in good English. It always transports you to a land of magic and wonder, and makes your imagination run wild. I hope you read this book and enjoy it as much as I do. 

Please tell us if you read this or other books by Enid Blyton. We love hearing from you. Stay safe, stay well. And keep reading. 

Posted in Disney Hotstar, Movies

Disney Magic Camp – The Movie

Posted on by Inesh Shenoy

(A Movie Review by Inesh Shenoy)

Hello everybody! I am Inesh and today I am writing a review on a new movie called Disney Magic Camp. Disney recently made this movie about learning and performing magic, which was going to hit the theatres in 2020 but due to the pandemic it was delayed. So they released it worldwide via the new Disney+ streaming channel, which is available via Hotstar in India. 

Image courtesy: Disney Magic Camp

Disney Magic Camp is roughly based on the world famous Tannen’s Magic Camp. It is a real-life 7-days magic camp which children who want to learn and improve their magic attend, and famous and wonderful magicians from around the world come together and teach them magic. This experience is captured well in the award-winning 2012 documentary called ‘Magic Camp’ by Judd Ehrlich. That film can be watched on Amazon Prime for free. I think you will like it.

Image courtesy: Tannen’s Magic

This year, due to COVID-19, the Tannen’s Magic decided to hold their Magic Camp online. My twin Ishaan and I both attended the sessions and it was a lot of fun. We got to learn magic from top magicians from around the world and to perform magic too! While this latest film by Disney is inspired by Tannen’s Magic Camp, it does a lot of things differently from the real camp.

For starters, in the film, the Magic Camp is called ‘The Institute of Magic’ and it is a camp where children go to learn magic for one month. All the children attending the camp are grouped into four groups: Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs, and Spades, and after that they compete for the Top Hat Competition and the Golden Wand. For the Top Hat Competition all the groups perform magic and the best group wins. The Golden Wand is awarded to the person who performed the best magic act.

The story line of the movie is about a boy named Theo Moses, who got into magic because of his father Devin Moses. Theo’s father passes away, and Theo practices cardistry (card tricks) to feel better.

Andy Dickerman (played by Adam DeVine) had attended the Institute many years back and had won three Golden Wands. Roy Preston (played by Jeffery Tambor) who is the head of the Institute of Magic asks Andy if he would teach the kids, but Andy wouldn’t come because he has stopped doing magic. But when Andy realised that his rival and ex-friend Kristina Darkwood (Gillian Jacobs) was coming as a trainer, he accepted. Andy and Kristina were a magic duo, but they fought and so they were now rivals.

Similarly, the movie plays with the topics of friendship, love, misunderstandings, and magic. Thanks to all this, it becomes a great and wonderful movie. The movie also ties in magic into life. I really enjoyed it.

My favourite part is Theo showing off his cardistry and magic. It also shows how each of us can be good at different things, and how each of this can be magic. I think you should watch the movie because it really shows how magic is everywhere.

It was a lot of fun watching the Magic Camp movie. It is available on Hotstar, so you can watch it right from your homes. Go watch it. I really hope you enjoy it. See you next time! Bye!