{"id":40320,"date":"2026-03-09T22:49:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40320"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:49:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T02:49:39","slug":"review-of-muck-and-magic-by-michael-morpurgo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40320","title":{"rendered":"Review of Muck and Magic, by Michael Morpurgo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/muck_and_magic_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/muck_and_magic_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-40393\" \/><\/a><em>Muck &#038; Magic<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Michael Morpugo<br \/>\nillustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill<\/p>\n<p>Candlewick Press, 2020.  First published in the United Kingdom in 2019.  60 pages.<br \/>\nReview written October 23, 2021, from a library book<\/p>\n<p>This sweet little book amounts to an illustrated short story.  It\u2019s about a girl named Bonny who dreamed of being an Olympic cyclist.  But one day she fell in front of some horses.<\/p>\n<p>That chance encounter pulled at her, and she found herself coming around them again and again.  Eventually, through the elderly lady who owns the horses, Bonny discovers a deep love for horses, and for sculpting.<\/p>\n<p>After Bonny takes a job mucking out the stalls, here\u2019s what the owner tells her:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p> \u201cWhere there\u2019s muck there\u2019s money, that\u2019s what they say,\u201d she said with a laugh.  \u201cNot true, I\u2019m afraid, Bonny.  Where there\u2019s muck, there\u2019s magic.  Now that <em>is<\/em> true.\u201d  I wasn\u2019t sure what she meant by that.  \u201cHorse muck,\u201d she went on, by way of explanation.  \u201cBest magic in the world for vegetables.  I\u2019ve got leeks in my garden longer than, longer than . . .\u201d  She looked around her.  \u201cTwice as long as your bicycle pump over there.  All the soil asks is that we feed it with that stuff, and it\u2019ll do whatever we want it to.  It\u2019s like anything, Bonny \u2013 you have to put more in than you take out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michaelmorpurgo.com\/\">michaelmorpurgo.com<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/candlewick.com\/\">candlewick.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1406382892\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/muck_and_magic.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/muck_and_magic.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p>What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Muck &#038; Magic by Michael Morpugo illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill Candlewick Press, 2020. First published in the United Kingdom in 2019. 60 pages. Review written October 23, 2021, from a library book This sweet little book amounts to an illustrated short story. It\u2019s about a girl named Bonny who dreamed of being an Olympic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-contemporary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40320"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46319,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320\/revisions\/46319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}