I have some projects I have been wanting to start but first I’ll share a few books I’ve recently enjoyed, starting with this book.

When I was homeschooling my kids I thoroughly enjoyed going through Holes by Louis Sachar with them. The writing was fun, plus the book lent itself to additional assignments tangential to covering the book. We even made ‘sploosh.’ The Magician of Tiger Castle is promoted as Sachar’s first adult book but I found that it worked on both a grown-up level as well as appealing to the kid in me. It’s a fantasy book that has many realistic elements, especially in regard to some human elements.

The book is narrated by Anatole, court magician to the king of Esquaveta, an invented kingdom located somewhere between France and Italy in the 16^th-century. Esquaveta has long been at odds with Oxatania, a kingdom with a more advanced economy and military. To ease tensions between kingdoms, Princess Tullia of Esquaveta has been pledged in marriage to Oxatania’s Prince Dalrympl. However, before the wedding Tullia falls in love with Anatole’s assistant Pito. Anatole, who is fond of Pito and has treated Tullia as his own daughter, attempts to circumvent the proscribed sentence of Pito’s death by developing a potion to erase the memories of love between the princess and his assistant. Complications arise from both the intended results and the unintended consequences of Anatole’s schemes. His revised plans well also raise hazards and challenges that have to be overcome.

Anatole developed an immortality potion, allowing him to recall this story while visiting the castle in the present day and interweave his current thoughts with details of what happened long ago. While highlighting the barbarity of the previous age, Anatole doesn’t shy away from the morally contentious choices he made while emphasizing caution making judgments about people and customs from different eras and circumstances. In addition, some of his narration holds up some of the silliness in both current and past ages for comparison .

Sachar didn’t provide a “happily ever after” resolution for everyone involved, which made the story more fulfilling for me. As I mentioned earlier the book appeals on several levels. The ‘adult’ level topics were handled with a light touch, focusing more on a traditional-type fantasy story but not shying away from the conflicting moral imperatives that arise in Anatole’s dilemmas.