Recognizing the real meaning of courage and tentatively establishing the mutual understanding necessary for solid family relationships are the unifying elements of a skillfully constructed time-slip fantasy. [Red Hart Magic] recreates three troubled periods in English history from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and allows the present-day Nan and Chris to observe their historical counterparts—who were as unassuming and as seemingly powerless as they—resolve great physical or moral dilemmas. The merging of past and present values is smoothly handled, the miniature model of an old English inn serves as an intriguing and effective device for transporting the two back in time, and the central characters solve their problems in a credible manner. (p. 160)
Mary M. Burns, in The Horn Book Magazine (copyright © 1977 by the Horn Book, Inc., Boston), April, 1977.
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