Upside-Down Magic (book)

*Upside-Down Magic* is the first book in the *Upside-Down Magic* literary Children's fantasy series. It was released September 25, 2015 by Scholastic Inc.

## Upside Down Magic

### Author

Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins

## Description

*In a world of elite magic academies, weird and wonderful things happen when you’re sent off to public school . . . and put in the Upside-Down Magic class.*

It's never easy when your magic goes wonky.

For Nory, this means that instead of being able to turn into a dragon or a kitten, she turns into both of them at the same time -- a dritten.

For Elliott, the simple act of conjuring fire from his fingertips turns into a fully frozen failure.

For Andres, wonky magic means he's always floating in the air, bouncing off the walls, or sitting on the ceiling.

For Bax, a bad moment of magic will turn him into a . . . actually, he'd rather not talk about that.

Nory, Elliott, Andres, and Bax are just four of the students in Dunwiddle Magic School's Upside-Down Magic class. In their classroom, lessons are unconventional, students are unpredictable, and magic has a tendency to turn wonky at the worst possible moments. Because it's always amazing, the trouble a little wonky magic can cause. . .

## Plot

In the middle of summer, Nory Horace practices fluxing for the Sage Academy entrance exam. She tries fluxing into a kitten, but ends up turning into a bitten (beaver-kitten). Bitten-Nory goes into the house and destroys some furniture until her brother, Hawthorn Horace scares her into turning back into a human and they clean up.

The next day, Nory goes to Sage Academy for the entrance exam and meets Lacey, a flare who’s in front of her in line. Lacey comes out crying after her turn and Nory goes in the Hall of Magic and Performance for her exam. Mr. Puthoor, a teacher, tells Nory to do the Flicker, Flare, Flyer, and Fuzzy tests but Nory is unable to do them. When they finally get to the Fluxer test, Nory is told to turn into a black kitten but turns into a smitten (snake-kitten) and dritten (dragon-kitten) and fails.

A month later, Aunt Margo comes and takes Nory to Dunwiddle and tells Nory that she’ll by going to Dunwiddle Magic School and will be in the Upside-Down Magic program. One the first day of school, Elliott walks Nory to school and they see Andres. Elliott also warns Nory about Pepper, an Upside-Down Fuzzy or Fierce and then leaves her to meet his Flare friends.

Nory goes into the school but is quickly overwhelmed and hides in a supply closet where she meets a girl with a lemon drops. Nory and lemon drop girl head to the UDM class and Ms. Starr introduces her and Pepper, who is the lemon drop girl. Nory fluxes into a bitten and when she turns back into a human, everybody introduces themselves. Sebastian can see invisible things, Elliott can freeze things, Pepper scares animals instead of making them like her, Marigold can shrink things, Willa can make it rain indoors, and Bax can turn into inanimate objects.

At lunch, Nory and Elliot go over and sit with Elliot’s friends, Lacey, Rune, and Zinnia, the Sparkies. The Sparkies tell Elliot how they don’t want to be friends with him anymore and have been trying to ditch him. Nory fluxes into a skunkephant (skunk-elephant), sprays the Sparkies, and then fluxes back into a human and hides in a closet. Eventually she heads out of the closet and goes to recess but the rest of the UDM class ignore her because Nory made them look bad.

Two weeks go by, and Nory’s family won’t pick up her calls. Aunt Margo sends them a message and Nory meets her boyfriend, Figs. Later, Hawthorn and Dalia call Nory and they tell her how if she can get her magic to be normal, then she might be able to reapply to Sage and go home.

When she gets back to school, Nory tells Elliot about how they could test out of the UDM program and they ask Ms. Starr is they can. Ms. Starr, while not wanting them to test out, agrees to get the principal to evaluate Nory and Elliot.

Nory and Elliot start practicing their fluxing and freezing but fail to keep it normal. At school, Nory finds a book called *The Box of Normal* and tries it out with Elliott at lunch. Using the “box of normal,” Nory is able to hold her kitten for 10 minutes and control it. At the end of the day, Pepper asks if the box of normal is working and Nory figures out that Pepper gave her the book. The box of normal trick also works for Elliott and he’s able to roast marshmallows and cook eggs.

Soon the whole class knows that Elliott can flare when during an exercise Nory asks Elliott to set a cherry on fire and Nory realizes that she’ll miss the UDM students.

When it’s time for the evaluation, Elliott and Nory both ace it. During class, Nory thinks about how she’ll miss some things about the UDM classes. At recess, Elliott runs to tell the Sparkies that he’s normal. The Sparkies ask Elliott to make popsicles and threaten him with a stick on fire. When the UDM students try to defend him, Lacey starts insulting them and sets Andres’s leash on fire. Elliot tries freezing it but it snaps so Nory fluxes into a bluebird. When she realize that a bluebird isn’t big enough, she tries to make it bigger but fails. Nory tries using Ms. Starrs teaching by understanding her feelings instead of ignoring them like her father. Finally, she fluxes into Enormous-Bluebird-Nory-with-Nory’s-Actual-Face and grabs Andres. North fluxes back but Andres starts floating away. Bad turns into a rope and they tie Rope-Bax to Andres.

Principal Gonzalez reveals that he was there and ties Andres to a leash. Lacey tries playing innocent and starts saying how Elliotts' freezing was dangerous but Principal Gonzalez calls her out on her setting Andres leash on fire and bullying the UDM kids. When everybody else leaves, he tells Elliott and Nory that they are going to stay in Ms.Starr’s class because a normal class won’t help them, but the UDM classes are helping.

A week later, the UDM kids are having a picnic and Nora’s family calls her. She tells them how she failed the test and her family tells her how she just needs to practice more. Nory tells them she has to go, and goes back to play with her friends.

## Videos

Upside-Down MagicUpside-Down Magic - Official Book TrailerMeet the Authors of the Upside-Down Magic Series
## Trivia

* This book is the debut of the *Upside-Down Magic* series.
* It is the only book focusing on one character.