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Health & Fitness

Reliving the Magical Years of Our Youths (With a Little More Drama Mixed In)

I was really into magic as a kid, and why not: if I learned how, I could make an elephant disappear. So it was with these memories that I was drawn to the book Vaclav and Lena.

I was really into magic as a kid, and why not? I couldn’t remember what I had for dinner; but, if I learned how, I could make an elephant disappear.

Well, instructions on how to do that were never included in the kits I got as a kid, but I could guess the card you picked out of my lucky deck (you could only see that trick once, since the card you picked just happened to be the same one every time…)

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So it was with these fond memories that I was drawn to the book, Vaclav and Lena. It is about a young boy, Vaclav, whose Russian parents moved to America when Vaclav was young.

He becomes obsessed with Harry Houdini, and decides he also wants to become a famous magician. He meets another young Russian immigrant, Lena, and decides he would like her to be his lovely assistant.

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When Lena’s troubled home life become too much, she gets whisked away from Vaclav, and he does not see her for many years.  This story has a few mystery elements, a few magical elements (of course), but I don’t think those make the book.

What did it for me was the characters. The dialogue is funny and realistic, and the characters are all fully formed. Vaclav’s mother kind of steals the show. The author, Haley Tanner, gave her a distinct accent, so at times she sounds humorous and awkward. But we also get a look at her inner thoughts, and they showed her strong determination and love for her son.

She realizes Lena does not have a good home life, but does not know what to do about it. And she loves Vaclav and wants the best for him, but finds she doesn’t always know the best way to go about showing it.

It’s a story of love and family and it was overall a very enjoyable read. Check it out soon at your local !

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