Lawn Mower Magic

Title:
Lawn Mower Magic

Author:
Lynne Jonell

Illustrator:
Brandon Dorman

Series:
A Stepping Stone Book

Book:
2

About the Author: (goodreads)
Lynne Jonell is the author of three novels and seven picture books for children, published by Henry Holt and Penguin/Putnam. Her first novel, Emmy & the Incredible Shrinking Rat, won the Minnesota Book Award, and her most recent novel, The Secret of Zoom, is a Junior Library Guild Selection. Her books have received starred reviews in Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Sesame Street Parents, and have been published in eight languages. She teaches writing at the Loft Literary Center, is married and has two sons, and lives in Plymouth, Minnesota. She will launch a new chapter book series with Random House in 2010, beginning with Hamster Magic, and is currently working on the third in the Emmy & the Rat series, titled Emmy & the Rats in the Belfry, to be released in 2011.

About the Illustrator: (goodreads)
no info found

Summary: (Goodreads)
With a POP! and a puff of smoke, the Willows' lawn mower calls it quits. A new mower will cost their parents a lot of money, money Derek had hoped to borrow for a train ticket to visit a friend. Luckily Derek and his brother and sisters find a rusty push mower tucked away in the shed. It doesn't look like much, but it turns out that it's been soaking up magic for years. And it's hungry for grass!
Can Derek earn his ticket? Maybe . . . if he, Abner, Tate, and Celia can keep the magic mower under control!
Lynne Jonell follows up her Junior Library Guild selection, Hamster Magic, with a second story of the Willow family's rowdy run-ins with mixed-up magic.

I'd Recommend to...
4th-Middle School

My Rating:
4.7/5

My Thoughts:
Derek and his brother and sisters just moved into a new house built on top of a old mine. Magic seems to be everywhere. One day, Derek's dad's lawn mower stops working. Derek needs a train ticket back to his old neighborhood for his best friend's birthday party, but they cannot by a new lawn mower and the train ticket. Derek and his brother and sisters find a lawn mower that works by itself because it is full of magic. It takes them on some crazy rides as they cut the grass. But all the grass gets cut, so Derek gets his train ticket.
It was a nice story, but I don't think families behave as well as the Wilson's behaved together in this book. I know me and my sister don't. But maybe it had something to do with the magic involved. A few times it mentioned a previous encounter with magic involving a hamster, but it never really explained what happened, so I suggest reading the first book before reading this book.