Kat's Reviews > The Wizard in the Tree

Basic plot: Mallory frees a wizard from being trapped in a tree, antics ensue.

I like this book more for a funny thing that happened to me than for the content. The book was good- a cute, little fantasy story- but nothing that'll really be remembered over time the way The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings will.

I was in 5th or 6th grade when a parent in the school system where I went to elementary school threw a fit about this book at a school board meeting due to two words contained therein: "slut" and "damn." Both words, I should note, were used in context (historical in the case of "slut" and non-cursing in the case of "damn"). This book was in the elementary school's library, and she thought it was an inappropriate book. My father was reading this in the newspaper and started complaining about the state of books in our school's library, getting all self-righteous about the whole thing. I listened to him for awhile, then finally heard the title of the book. I quietly left the room and retrieved the book from the bookshelf in my room, then returned and handed it to him. (oh, the look on his face...)

Well, clearly the self-righteous rant ended there, as he found out I'd had the book for years. Then I found the words in question, and discovered their contextual nature. My dad never had another word to say about what I did or didn't read, and I can't recall him ever saying anything about a book being "questionable" in a library again. :)