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Max Magic: the Sunday Times bestselling debut from Stephen Mulhern!

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Piccadilly Press, the award-winning young readers ’ imprint of Bonnier Books UK, today announces a major acquisition: MAX MAGIC , a new series from TV superstar Stephen Mulhern . He covered Graham Norton in the weekend morning 9:30am to 12:30pm slot in August [9] and also presented a week of the Chris Evans Breakfast Show in December. In fact magic seems to be landing Max in more trouble all the time, as his latest escapades have led to his Dad being in danger of losing his market stall which would be a disaster for the whole family. However, read aloud by (or with) an adult it offers lots of opportunities for some difficult topics to be explored as the young reader/listener follows Max’s adventures and learns how he deals with the various dilemmas he faces. Some aspects of the story feel a bit outdated (including the playground bully and the “Crayfish Twins”) and hard to relate to modern childhood but that often doesn’t bother a younger reader.

Most notable of these is his former Saturday Showdown co-host Holly Willoughby, who has assisted him on many occasions in a variety of illusions including being sawn in half and beheaded with a guillotine.

I enjoyed this story for its realistic nature in how Max got sucked in with the magic to try fix everything. The plot is fun, quick moving and highly imaginative, and the reader is drawn in to the magical adventure that Max and his band of loyal friends have. I also read it as though it was a mini Stephen Mulhern narrating, even the illustrations looked like a young Stephen! citation needed] The family spent their holidays at Butlin's Minehead in Somerset, where Mulhern began performing in public. Although I am not the target audience for Max Magic I really enjoyed this entertaining book about friends working together and using their skills to defeat bullies.

In 2016, Mulhern presented Go for It, and co-hosted The Next Great Magician alongside Rochelle Humes for ITV. There's some nice messages in here, and it highlights the importance of family, friends and having good morals etc.Messages from the story like standing up for what is right were covered well and are relevant to the children in this time. Even though this is a children's book, and is clearly intended to be as accessible as possible for young readers given that the font is not too dissimilar to comic sans as well as certain words being emphasised in bold, the "anything is possible" theme is something that adults can relate to and therefore may appeal to them as much as their kids. The overall aesthetic is really nice immediately enticing the target audience with a striking cover and bright sprayed edges. Unfortunately he does not apply the same determination to his school work much to the frustration of his friend Sophie. After teasing a “big announcement” on social media, Stephen finally revealed what he was up to last night (April 21).

Having finished reading it a few days ago, I can't remember what happened to George Bottley, but since there's going to be more books in the series, maybe that's the reason the ends weren't tied up completely. It came across as though this is going to be the start of a series of novels so will be interesting to see when any future books come out – certainly a good first start. With an empowering and satisfying ending, this accessible and pacy short chapter book is perfect for summer term book clubs in KS2, class reading outside in the sunshine and Windrush-themed topic teaching. I liked that there is a trick you can learn in the back of the book, which was part of the story, me and my daughter tried to learn it too. He became the youngest member of The Magic Circle, which brought about an appearance on Blue Peter in a piece about Harry Houdini.Max needs a little bit of magic to get out of this one and it comes in the form of a magical hat that gives his dog Lucky the ability to talk. Mulhern has appeared on the Disney Channel and then on CITV alongside Holly Willoughby on Saturday Showdown. Now the local gangsters the Crayfish Twins are after him and he'll need a miracle to drag himself out of this one!

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