David’s new to the city, so he’s quite pleased when he makes a new friend, Leilah. She in turn introduces him to the existence of magic in their midst, in the form of the absent-minded, second-class wizard who lives in the Washington Square Arch, or at least under it. This begins a strange sort of friendship, as the two children try to help out the befuddled wizard, whose magic tends to go awry and whose memory is quite frequently on the fritz. When a spell goes really wrong and turns David’s dog into a stone statue, and said statue is promptly swiped by an unscrupulous antiques dealer, it’ll take a whole lot of cunning and ingenuity to rescue the petrified pooch before he can be sold to some unsuspecting collector. If only the wizard was more help…

This is another one of Yolen’s many excellent books for younger readers. Whimsical and off-beat, it’s a quick read but a fun one, filled with some enjoyable characters and a simple, yet thoughtful plot. The sheer absurdity of the situation, as well as the mental imagery invoked, make for some fun reading. I had fun checking this book out.