Ordinary Magic

by Malcolm J. Bosse and Malcolm Bosse

Book Overview

Fourteen-year-old Jeffrey has spent his entire childhood in India. When his father dies, he faces a new life in the United States, where his Hindu upbringing seems out of place-at first. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374425175
• ISBN13: 9780374425173
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 185 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Oridinary Magic is no ordinary book!

I've read this book for school. All I can say is 2 words: BUY THIS! Jeffery is a great guy. This book has a cool plot! Who knew fasting and not leaving a house could- Oh, dear. I don't want to spoil everything. Look, just get this book, You and your children will enjoy it! See ya later :)

Wonderful book, amazing plot!

I loved this book. I thought it was wonderful, I espically liked it because I could relate conciderin I"m hindu just like Jeffrey (Ganesh) was

A journey between cultures

"Ordinary Magic", originally published as "Ganesh" almost twenty years ago, is an absorbing and touching story of an American boy, born and raised in India, who must "return" to the United States after both his parents die. When the book opens, Jeffrey "Ganesh" Moore is fourteen. His mother has been dead for five years, and his father is suffering from heart disease. In the first third of the book, we are introduced to Ganesh's life as an "Indian" villager and accompany him through his father's death and funeral. The remainder of the book concerns what happens to Ganesh after his father's death-- his lonely trip to the River Cauvery to spread his father's ashes and his move to the U.S. Ganesh's somewhat rough acclimatization to American culture is perhaps no more than a reader might expect, but what charms about this book is not that Bosse is trying to wow us with an unpredictable plot, but rather that he enters so clearly into the mind of a fair-skinned, blue-eyed boy raised as a Hindu and depicts so clearly the conflicts such a boy would likely have on coming for the first time to his "native" land. Ganesh is a strong and likeable character, and "Ordinary Magic" is a thoughtful and delightful book for readers from age 10 or so and up.