Dorko the Magnificent

Author: Andrea Beaty
Illustrator: Nathan Hale

© Date: 2013
Publisher: Amulet Books
Pages: 213
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: No, the cover has an illustration, chapter numbers are fancy, and each page number has a top hat
Publisher Recommended Age: 10-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No

Summary from Book: Robbie Darko is a magician, an old-school, pull-a-rabbit-out-of-your-hat-style magician. Well, in Robbie’s case, sometimes the rabbit escapes instead, causing mass panic. But what’s a young magician to do? Quit? Definitely not an option for a performer destines for greatness—or at least a big splash at the Hobson Elementary School talent show. Robbie’s determined to show the world, especially his overworked, distracted mom, that he’s a true star. But based on last year’s talent show, he’s definitely going to need some help.

And—abracadabra alakazam!—help appears, in the unexpected and not entirely welcome form of grumpy Grandma Melvyn, who calls everyone “Trixie” and is merciless with her cane. She offers to give Robbie magic lessons. She’s good, too, really good. She’s got lots of tricks up her sleeve—sleights of hand and vanishing acts. But through their lessons, Robbie learns some even bigger tricks that take a lot more magic to master. Tricks like compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness.

Written with pitch-perfect humor and unforgettable characters by the award-winning author of Secrets of the Cicada Summer, Dorko the Magnificent will linger with you long after Robbie Darko has taken his final bow.

Page Pig Thoughts: This book was filed under “Realistic Fiction,” and it definitely covered the emotional spectrum of reality. Well done humor was mixed into an array of sadness, embarrassment, and other fifth grade emotional moments. Some of the humor seemed like it was intended for a parent reading the story, so I wonder how the humor would play out for a child. I do not anticipate Page Pup being interested in this one in the near future, so I will be left wondering on that one.

To say that I was unprepared for the ending would be a bit of an understatement. The death of Grandma Melvyn definitely lingered with me long after she took a final bow with Robbie. I enjoyed some parts of this story, and others left me challenged emotionally. This was not a magician version of Rosie Revere and her fellow Questioneers, but a realistic peak into the life of a fifth grader.

Family Unit: Robbie lives at home with his mother, father, and younger brother (Harry aka Ape Boy, age 6). His father travels so much that he does not appear in very much of the story. Grandma Melvyn comes to live in their home, she is actually a great-great aunt, not a grandmother.

Conflict/Social Issues:

Robbie finds his little brother, Harry aka Ape Boy, very annoying. I could hear the nasal toned whining in his voice when his younger brother ate candy that wasn’t his.
A boy at school, Nate Watkins, frequently gives Robbie a bad time.
The principal is leery of Robbie and his magic since an incident in the previous year’s talent show when Robbie did not know that Principal Adolphus was afraid of salamanders.
Robbie’s teacher is also leery of Robbie and his magic trick incidents.
Robbie is initially challenged with Grandma Melvyn taking his room, so he has to share a room with his younger brother.

Positive Items:

Robbie does not sit around moping about his home situation or use it as an excuse for bad behavior or poor school performance.
Robbie finds an adult to spend quality time with and learns many things from Grandma Melvyn.
Grandma Melvyn finds new purpose in her life after Robbie’s talent show.
Robbie’s best friend, Cat, likes doing things her own way. She has an ability to know just what to do to make others feel better, and is endearing while she relates to others.
Robbie wants to be a magician, and he spends lots of time practicing and studying to improve his skills.
When Robbie is upset about having to share a room with his younger brother, he makes the most of it and creates a Hideout for himself.

Items of Interest:

Robbie’s father lost his good job, so now he has a job that makes him travel a lot. He misses Robbie’s mother’s birthday party and most other events in the story.
When Robbie’s father was between jobs, the family did not have much money. Robbie watched his mother through the loan office window every week pleading “please, please” for the loan officer to take the $20 bill from her hands to put toward their loan. The loan office decided to give her a job because she was there every week anyway. Now she is constantly working, taking calls, and tired. She no longer has time for her special movie nights with Robbie when they watched old time movies together.
Robbie calls his younger brother, Harry, Ape Boy because he climbs on everything and chews on anything that is near his mouth. The doctor suggested giving Harry chewing gum for his chewing needs. Now Harry chews gum all the time and sticks it everywhere while bubble gum wrappers are all over the floor.
Robbie plans an amazing magic trick for his mother’s birthday. He studies how to do it, and practices a lot. While he executes his pull the tablecloth out from under the dishes trick perfectly, his bow starts a fire which distracts from his moment of glory.
Grandma Melvyn is extremely cranky and not afraid to speak her mind.
Robbie has a pet rabbit that he found as a baby after it had escaped the neighbor’s cat. Robbie takes good care of it and uses it as a source of comfort when things are not going well.
Robbie was upset to be stuck in bunk beds in Harry’s room. He uses an old sheet, Christmas lights, and some stars cut out of silver tape to make himself a hideout on the bottom bunk.
Robbie makes a grand plan to perform a rabbit from the hat trick for a class presentation. His trick does not go according to plan, Houdi the rabbit escaped while the class was doing other things before presentation time. Robbie tries to comfort Houdi because the classroom noise probably terrified him. He winds up talking to the principal, then waiting for his mother to come pick up Houdi. Robbie plans to fake illness so that he won’t have to go back for the inevitable ribbing from his classmates, but his plan didn’t work out because his mother is upset that she is now late for Grandma Melvyn’s doctor appointment and work.
Robbie is unhappy that there is a surprise Who Knew What They Do presentation for parents coming to talk about their jobs or hobbies to the class. He is even less amused when he finds out Grandma Melvyn is the surprise speaker because his mother was too busy working. Robbie is furious when she pretends that some coins were missing from the money box that she brought, and magically they appeared in Robbie’s pocket. She said that she was giving him publicity, but Robbie saw himself being dubbed a thief.
Grandma Melvyn yells at Wheel of Fortune all the time.
Grandma Melvyn offers to teach Robbie magic. During the course of his frustration on what he was actually learning, mutual respect with Grandma Melvyn is found. He cannot take his eyes off of her magnificent card shuffling, she is impressed that he sits with a deck of cards for two hours or more practicing by himself.
Robbie practices an act for the talent show. His friend, Cat, practices as his assistant.
Robbie discovers that Grandma Melvyn was part of a magic duo, Martin and Melvyn, that performed around the world. Grandma Melvyn and Martin were in love and intended to get married one day. But that love story was more complicated. All we discover is that Martin eloped with Trixie, who was going to be a new assistant, and their car went off an icy bridge three hours later. Both of them died. Grandma Melvyn never talks about it, Robbie just stumbled across a yellowed newspaper article during an unfortunate picture frame breaking/picture ripping incident.
Robbie attempts to apologize to Grandma Melvyn after the horrible picture incident, but never feels that his apology is accepted. He even uses the money that he was saving to buy himself a top hat to buy something for Grandma Melvyn. He attempts to give a cane some pizazz for her, but winds up with glitter everywhere but where he wants it because glitter is evil.
Robbie doesn’t think that Grandma Melvyn will come to the talent show for his big moment, and his mother’s chair in the front row of the talent show is also empty. As it turns out, Grandma Melvyn and Cat had been practicing an add-on part of the talent show routine. Robbie has to pretend that he knows what is going on when his act continues longer than he expects. Grandma Melvyn wows the crowd with her fancy magic tricks, but the big finale trick has a bit of a hiccup. In the end, we discover that his mother was near the back of the audience with Harry.
Grandma Melvyn tells Robbie that, “sometimes you just have to let things go.”
Grandma Melvyn lit up in front of the crowd. She finds new purpose for her life and starts sketching new ideas for a new act.
Near the end, Robbie’s mother thanks him for her birthday magic trick. He didn’t understand why she would thank him for the fire incident. She said that he worked hard on it, and she appreciated his efforts. She just hadn’t remembered to thank him before.
For most of the story, Grandma Melvyn was waiting for insurance to approve the money for her to get a knee replacement surgery. When she finally gets approved and goes to the hospital for her surgery, the pre-surgery bloodwork finds that she has an inoperable brain tumor. She dies shortly after that.
Robbie continues on with learning magic. Cat decides to learn magic also.