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Description edit see section history

For fifteen years, Reason Cansino has lived on the run.Together with her mother, Sarafina, she has moved from one place to another in the Australian countryside, desperate not to be found by Reason’s grandmother Esmeralda, a dangerous woman who believes in magic. But the moment Reason... read more

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Characters/People edit see section history

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First Sentence edit see section history

It would be easiest to just walk out the front door.

Glossary edit see section history

  • a bit thing: particular. If someone is a bit thing about how they dress it means they are particular about their attire.
  • amari: grandfather. A word used by Aboriginal people in the Roper area of the Northern Territory.
  • ambo: a paramedic (from ambulance)
  • bickie: short for biscuit, the Australian word for cookie
  • bitumen: can mean either a paved (sealed) road or the black substance (usually asphalt) used to pave (seal) the road.
  • blue heeler: an Australian cattle dog
  • boong: racist term for an Australian Aboriginal person
  • bottlebrush: a tree or shrub with spikes of brightly coloured flowers
  • bugger: damn. The thing you say when you stub your toe and don’t want to be too rude.
  • bunyip: creature of Aboriginal legend, haunts swamps and billabongs (waterholes that only exist during the rainy season)
  • dag: a dag is someone lacking in social graces, someone who is eccentric and doesn’t fit in. The closest U.S. approximation is nerd, but a dag doesn’t necessarily know a thing about computers or mathematics or science.
  • dob in or dob on: to tell on. For example: “I’ll dob you in if you eat all those cakes.”
  • dog’s breakfast: a mess, a disaster. To make a dog’s breakfast out of something is to really mess it up.
  • drongo: someone who’s not very bright
  • Emoh Ruo: Our Home spelled backward, a common Australian name for your house.
  • esky: cooler, the thing you keep things cold in if you’re going on a picnic.
  • flat out like a lizard drinking: busy, in a hurry.
  • get on: be friendly with. For example, “Those two don’t get on” means that they aren’t friends.
  • grouse: Excellent, wonderful, although it can also be a verb meaning to complain, as in, “I wish you’d stop grousing about everything.”
  • jack of: to be jack of something means that you’re sick of it.
  • ‘ken hell: an expression of annoyance.
  • li-lo: a blowup rubber mattress.
  • lolly: candy. The plural is lollies. Although “losing your lolly” means losing your temper.
  • munanga: white person. A word used by Aboriginal people in the Roper area of the Northern Territory.
  • porkies: lies
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Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 3 in Magic or Madness trilogy. (standard series)

Followed by Magic Lessons.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Justine Larbalestier (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Razorbill
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 1595140220
Page Count: 288

Awards edit see section history


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