The Magic Sequence Series

An orphan girl meets the inhabitants of the mysterious Octagon House—and discovers a portal to America’s past—from the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy. Lorrie happens upon a strange and fascinating secret! Did a witch live in the eight-sided house? Was it haunted? There were lots of scary stories about the strange house—but none could match the secret Lorrie uncovered. One day, she climbed the high iron gate and escaped into the garden to save a kitten from some cruel boys—and met the mysterious lady of the house. The woman let Lorrie explore all the odd-shaped rooms. In one of them was a rocking horse and a large, eight-sided dollhouse—an exact miniature of the big house. The dollhouse was beautifully furnished—as if someone lived there! It drew Lorrie back into exciting adventures that she had to face with courage and daring!

With their father missing in action in Vietnam, Holly and her siblings end up in a time warp as they race to free their town from a witch’s curse   When Holly, Judy, and Crockett Wade are sent to live with their grandparents after their father is declared MIA in Vietnam, Holly fears she’ll never fit in at school. The small town of Dimsdale, Massachusetts, is nothing like Boston. Even worse, Grandma and Grandpa Wade live in an overgrown house next to the town dump, a place without electricity or running water! None of the dishes match, and Holly’s grandparents are always bringing back other people’s odds and ends. But an old, smelly pillow embroidered with broken circles leads to strange dreams—and a maze in the junkyard! At first, when Holly and her brother and sister walk through an opening in the maze, they don’t realize they’ve entered another time. But they’re back in colonial New England, where they meet a healer named Tamar—and suddenly Holly is caught in the crossfire between dueling witches. Forced to keep their time-traveling a secret, the three siblings race to save Tamar and their town.   Lavender-Green Magic is the 5th book in the Magic Sequence, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Young people time-travel to historical and magical realms in three fantasies by the legendary author of the Witch World series and “a superb storyteller” (The New York Times).   In the six stand-alone novels that comprise her Magic Sequence series, Andre Norton, a “pioneer” in sci-fi and fantasy, conjures the perfect alchemy of enchanting fantasy and poignant human drama as ordinary kids travel through a variety of portals into historical and magical adventures (Anne McCaffrey). In the three novels collected here, the young heroes are transported to a time of dragons, witch hysteria in colonial New England, and the England of King James. As always, “Andre Norton can be relied upon to convert her magic formulas into adroit entertainment” (Kirkus Reviews).   Dragon Magic: When four boys find a jigsaw puzzle with four pictures of dragons in an abandoned house, each of them travels to a different enchanted time. Sig becomes a Viking warrior who must slay a dragon who was once a man and now guards a cursed treasure. Ras is a Nubian prince sold into captivity who can only escape by killing a deadly Egyptian serpent. Artie wages war to defend King Arthur and the Pendragon flag. A sword bearer and page in the imperial palaces of a great Chinese emperor, Kim must follow the path of the slumbering dragon.   Lavender-Green Magic: Sent to live with their grandparents in a small Massachusetts town after their father is declared MIA in Vietnam, Holly, Judy, and Crockett Wade walk through an opening in a maze in a junkyard and enter another time. In colonial New England, they are caught in the cross fire between dueling witches.   Red Hart Magic: When Chris Fitton and his new stepsister, Nan Mallory, find an exquisite model of an old English inn called the Red Hart, they are able to travel in their dreams to tumultuous times in England’s history, where they try to save the innkeeper of the Red Hart from being executed, come to the assistance of a man hiding from smugglers, and struggle to prove Chris innocent of burning down a squire’s barn with the help of a Bow Street runner.

Four boys from different races and nationalities are drawn together by a potent magic that hurtles them into worlds populated by heroes and dragons Sig, Artie, Kim, and Ras go to the same school but have nothing in common—except for the urge to explore an abandoned house in the neighborhood. Who knows what treasures they’ll unearth? In one of the rooms is a dusty old box with four pictures of dragons on top, containing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle all jumbled together. But they glitter like jewels and lead each boy back to an enchanted time.   Sig becomes a Viking warrior who must slay a dragon who had once been a man and now guards a cursed treasure. Ras is a Nubian prince sold into captivity; he can only escape by killing a deadly Egyptian serpent. As Artos, named for Caesar, High King of Britain, Artie lives under the yoke of Saxon tyranny, waging war to defend King Arthur and the Pendragon flag. Now a sword bearer and page in the imperial palaces of the great Chinese emperor, Kim must follow the path of the slumbering dragon. Against a backdrop of myth and fantasy, acclaimed author Andre Norton weaves an enthralling tale of friendship, faith, loyalty, and heroism.   Dragon Magic is the 4th book in the Magic Sequence, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A girl and her two brothers are transported back to the time of King Arthur, where they must return three magic talismans to their rightful owners or remain trapped forever in the distant past The adventure begins when Sara Lowry wins a picnic basket at the Firemen’s Strawberry Festival. She and her brothers, Greg and Eric, are staying with their uncle at his Hudson Valley estate while their parents are in Japan. Fascinated by the haunting history of the old manor, they pack a picnic lunch and begin their search for the legendary lost lake. They discover a medieval castle—and suddenly they’re enveloped by a gray mist that transports them back to the time of King Arthur! There, they are given an urgent mission to recover three lost talismans: Arthur’s sword, Excalibur; Merlin’s ring; and the horn of Huon, Warden of the West.   Can Sara, Greg, and Eric fulfill their quest and save Avalon—the only place that stands between the Powers of Darkness and the mortal realm—and return to their own time?

A boy’s encounter with powerful tribal magic transforms him into his spirit animal—and lands him in the middle of a war between humans and beasts with supernatural powers   When his father is called to active duty in Vietnam, Cory Alder leaves Florida to live with his adopted Native American uncle, Jasper. Jasper’s Idaho ranch is like a foreign country. Cory is afraid of the cougars, bears, and wolves; he doesn’t like the big mountains and doubts he’ll ever be able to ride a wild horse. Then he meets an old Nez Perce Medicine Man called Black Elk, who catapults Cory into an alternate universe where animals live in tribes, hunt, and go on the warpath. Transformed into a beaver called Yellow Shell, he learns to speak their language and discovers they all fear the legendary Changer, who plots to reshape the creatures of both the human and animal realms and use them for his own nefarious ends.   With two worlds hanging in the balance, Cory must rely on courage and instinct to defeat this cunning enemy and be restored to his human form. Is he strong enough to stand up to the Changer and overcome his own fear of the unknown?

From the New York Times–bestselling Grand Master of Science Fiction: New stepsiblings Chris and Nan have time-traveling adventures in an old English inn. What is the magic of the Red Hart Inn, an exquisite model of an old English inn, that triggers three strange and exciting adventures back into earlier centuries for its two owners? Chris Fitton and his new stepsister Nan Mallory, both lonely and unhappy, must test their courage through three tumultuous periods of English history in this skillfully written time-warp fantasy. What they learn about themselves and each other enables them to live more fully in their own time. Red Hart Magic is the 6th book in the Magic Sequence, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Young people are transported to historical and magical adventures in three fantasies by the author of the Witch World series and “a superb storyteller” (The New York Times).   In the six stand-alone novels that comprise her Magic Sequence series, Andre Norton, a “pioneer” in sci-fi and fantasy, conjures the perfect alchemy of enchanting fantasy and poignant human drama as ordinary kids travel through a variety of portals into historical and magical realms (Anne McCaffrey). In the first three novels collected here, the young heroes are transported to the days of King Arthur, the time of the American Civil War, and the supernatural world of Native American myth. As always, “Andre Norton can be relied upon to convert her magic formulas into adroit entertainment” (Kirkus Reviews).   Steel Magic: On a picnic in the Hudson Valley, Sara Lowry and her brothers Greg and Eric discover a medieval castle, where suddenly they’re enveloped by a gray mist and emerge in the time of King Arthur. To save Avalon, they must recover three magic talismans—Arthur’s sword, Excalibur; Merlin’s ring; and the horn of Huon—or remain forever trapped in the distant past.   Octagon Magic: There are lots of scary stories about the strange eight-sided house in Lorrie’s neighborhood. Does a witch live there? Is it haunted? But when Lorrie meets the mysterious lady of the house, she’s granted access to explore. In one room, she finds a rocking horse and an exact miniature of the big house. When Laurie climbs on the rocking horse, she is transported into the eight-sided dollhouse and the past, where she meets people who once found this home a refuge.   Fur Magic: When his father is called to active duty in Vietnam, Cory Alder leaves Florida to live on his adopted Native American uncle’s Idaho ranch. There, an encounter with an old Nez Perce Medicine Man called Black Elk catapults Cory into an alternate universe where animals live in tribes, hunt, and go on the warpath. Transformed into a spirit animal—a beaver named Yellow Shell—he soon finds himself in the middle of a war between humans and beasts with supernatural powers.

An orphan girl meets the inhabitants of the mysterious Octagon House—and discovers a portal to America’s past—from the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy. Lorrie happens upon a strange and fascinating secret! Did a witch live in the eight-sided house? Was it haunted? There were lots of scary stories about the strange house—but none could match the secret Lorrie uncovered. One day, she climbed the high iron gate and escaped into the garden to save a kitten from some cruel boys—and met the mysterious lady of the house. The woman let Lorrie explore all the odd-shaped rooms. In one of them was a rocking horse and a large, eight-sided dollhouse—an exact miniature of the big house. The dollhouse was beautifully furnished—as if someone lived there! It drew Lorrie back into exciting adventures that she had to face with courage and daring!

From the New York Times–bestselling Grand Master of Science Fiction: New stepsiblings Chris and Nan have time-traveling adventures in an old English inn. What is the magic of the Red Hart Inn, an exquisite model of an old English inn, that triggers three strange and exciting adventures back into earlier centuries for its two owners? Chris Fitton and his new stepsister Nan Mallory, both lonely and unhappy, must test their courage through three tumultuous periods of English history in this skillfully written time-warp fantasy. What they learn about themselves and each other enables them to live more fully in their own time. Red Hart Magic is the 6th book in the Magic Sequence, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.