Former children’s bookseller Jennifer Bell on her new Magicalia series and giving readers a thrill
Former children’s bookseller Jennifer Bell’s new series gives readers exactly what they want
Magicalia, the super-charged, thrilling and hugely fun new series from Jennifer Bell, started with a single idea: what if we could manifest our emotions as living, breathing creatures?
“What would they look like? How would they behave? What sort of abilities might they have?” says the author. “Rage, for example, might become a ferocious, fire-breathing tank with volcanic skin. Amusement could be a mischievous little floof who always delights in tickling people and hiccoughs. Confidence might be a giant, strutting creature with powerful legs that allow it to jump higher than a building. I had so much fun imagining all the different species, I knew I had to write a story about them.”
In book one (Race of Wonders, publishing with Walker on 2nd May), a girl living in a sleepy town finds her world thrown upside down when her father is kidnapped by a woman who is accompanied by something that looks like a hamster crossed with a rhinoceros. This “giant hamstoceros” is actually a grobble, conjured from greed, and is just one type of “magicore” which people conjure using their emotions. They can be useful and help the heroine Bitsy get out of sticky situations, but magicores conjured by others can be dangerous, too.
There are many different types of magicores, from the lushly feathered ozoz, conjured from confidence, to the thimbull, conjured from sympathy, and—Bell’s favourite —the quiggle, which comes from disappointment. “I love grumpy animals, and the quiggle is a little, mousey thing with shruggy shoulders who is very judgmental and constantly annoyed at having been conjured.”
Magicore moments
When Bitsy and her best friend Kosh learn how to conjure magicores themselves they head out in search of not only Bitsy’s father, but also the “gyrowheel”, a historical device that allows conjurors to make incredibly powerful “omega-level” magicores. Yes, this could have devastating consequences for the world as we know it if it fell into the wrong hands. They travel to London’s West End, Paris and India, spend time in the conservatoire (a school for conjurers) and battle with Riddlejax, the ultimate, shape-shifting villain who wants the gyrowheel for his own nefarious uses.
There are a few interesting character revelations, and these will certainly surprise readers, making them question who is good and who is not. This is partly down to Riddlejax, who is both “a maniac and a mastermind”, says Bell. “He’s scary because he’s volatile and you never know what he will do next. He’s also a revolutionary, able to convince even the most passive people to join his cause, which means my protagonists constantly question who to trust.” And the plot is incredibly exciting, something which the author is passionate about.
“Adventures aren’t entertaining unless they’re worth it. You need high stakes and characters that your readers care about,” she said. “I use the instincts I’ve developed as a reader to plot my books. I consider the dynamics of the story, about where I’m placing action in relation to dialogue. If I get bored or lose interest when I’m writing a scene, I stop and rewrite it until I’m enjoying it again.”
Adventures aren’t entertaining unless they’re worth it. You need high stakes and characters your readers care about
Race of Wonders is illustrated by David Wyatt, who has also worked on books by J R R Tolkien, Terry Pratchett and Geraldine McCaughrean, something Bell said makes her feel “beyond honoured”. Wyatt has created not only the cover but also illustrations of 30 different magicores, with a different one heading the start of every chapter.
There are three more books in the series to come and Bell is, at the time of speaking, finalising the draft of Magicalia: Thief of Shadows. In this sequel, Kosh is framed for a daring theft and he and Bitsy go on the run to find the real perpetrator. There are many secrets to be revealed about the main villain, Riddlejax, and new magicores to meet. Around 20 more will be introduced over the next three books, says their creator.
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Jennifer Bell’s top three
The Crooked Sixpence
Corgi Children’s, £7.99, 9780552572507
Book one of The Uncommoners series. “A lively, imaginative adventure”, said the Sunday Times. “An unputdownable treasure of a book”, said the Guardian.
51,100 copies sold
Wonderscape
Walker Books, £7.99, 9781406391725
A Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month. “Eight-plus readers with a taste for adventure and science will immerse themselves in the Uncommoners author Jennifer Bell’s exciting new Wonderscape”, said the Guardian.
27,062 copies sold
The Smoking Hourglass
Corgi Children’s, £6.99,9780552572903
Second in The Uncommoners series
13,117 copies sold
Race of Wonders will be Bell’s ninth book, after the series The Uncommoners, Agents of Wild, and Wonderscape and Legendarium. Her début novel, The Crooked Sixpence, part of The Uncommoners series, (Penguin Random House Children’s), was a Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month, as was Wonderscape, and she moved to Walker Books in 2019 in a in a six-figure, pre-emptive deal. She says she wasn’t, however, much of a reader growing up. At both primary and secondary school the emphasis was on reading being a challenge, rather than something that was done for fun, and Bell remembers the experience of reading Northanger Abbey as one that was particularly miserable.
When I started writing, I knew exactly the kind of book I wanted to write – something accessible, relatable and exciting
The only stories she consumed were on screen and she later did a degree in film studies. But in her 20s, when stuck on a coach with nothing to do, she picked up Christopher Paolini’s Eragon, about a boy who finds a mysterious dragon egg, and had her first transportive reading experience. She went on to get a job in the children’s department at Foyles (and was part of the team that won Children’s Bookseller of the Year at the 2012 British Book Awards), and wrote her first novel during her lunch break. She also spent some time as a bookseller at the indie Tales on Moon Lane, and her experience of selling children’s books means she knows exactly what readers want.
“When I started writing, I knew exactly the kind of book I wanted to write—something accessible, relatable and exciting, something that screamed ‘reading for entertainment’,” she said.
And as for the world of Magicalia itself, that was inspired by Bell’s fascination for where science and magic meet. “Science is what’s fact, but it’s also full of mystery, theories and the unknown—and that feels like magic.”
Metadata
Imprint: Walker Books
Publication: 02.05.24
Format: PB
ISBN: 9781529506143
Rights: Sold in three territories to date
Editor: Megan Middleton & Denise Johnstone-Burt
Agent: Polly Nolan, PaperCuts Literary Agency
