History Literature / MagicShop

* BlessedWithSuck: Usually the things bought from the shop have some very significant drawbacks. The monster's ring will put you in ShapeshifterModeLock, the dragon hatchling is highly conspicuous and you don't get to keep it anyway, the toad comes with an evil sorceress trying to reobtain it, the skull literally ''forces'' you to tell the truth no matter the circumstances, and the love charm makes all members of the opposite sex obsess insanely over you ([[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E16BewitchedBotheredAndBewildered "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" style]]). Only the sleeping bag doesn't come with a massive amount of suck along with its bless, and even then, probably because there wasn't a whole book to explore it. The only drawback of the sleeping bag is that it forces you to choose between [[NotAllowedToGrowUp never growing up]] and returning to the arguably CrapsackWorld while knowing you have the strength to change it.

* EndOfAnAge: The former magical age of the earth is implied in both ''Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher'' and ''Juliet Dove, Queen of Love''.

* "Watch Out!" (1987)[[note]]ShortStory collected in ''Spaceships and Spells'' (1987), ''Bruce Coville's Book of Magic: Tales to Cast a Spell on You'' (1996).[[/note]]

* "The Metamorphosis of Justin Jones" (1997)[[note]]ShortStory collected in ''Bruce Coville's Book of Magic II: More Tales to Cast a Spell on You'' (1997), ''Odder Than Ever'' (1999), ''Odds Are Good: An Oddly Enough and Odder Than Ever Omnibus'' (2006).[[/note]]

!! Provides examples of:

* TheAgeless: The Immortal Vermin, introduced in ''Jennifer Murdley's Toad''. Bufo, the first of the Immortal Vermin to appear, says he can be killed, but barring such an incident, he will live forever. Jerome and Roxanne, the youngest of the Immortal Vermin, inform the protagonists of ''The Skull of Truth'' and ''Juliet Dove, Queen of Love'' of their status as "killable, but otherwise undying".

* BlessedWithSuck: Usually the things bought from the shop have some very significant drawbacks. The monster's ring will put you in ShapeshifterModeLock, the dragon hatchling is highly conspicuous and you don't get to keep it anyway, the toad comes with an evil sorceress trying to reobtain it, the skull literally ''forces'' you to tell the truth no matter the circumstances, and the love charm makes all members of the opposite sex obsess insanely over you ([[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered style]]). Only the sleeping bag doesn't come with a massive amount of suck along with its bless, and even then, probably because there wasn't a whole book to explore it. The only drawback of the sleeping bag is that it forces you to choose between [[NotAllowedToGrowUp never growing up]] and returning to the arguably CrapsackWorld while knowing you have the strength to change it.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: The premise of the series basically.

* TricksterMentor: Elives, who overlaps with EccentricMentor at times.

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: In ''The Monster's Ring'', the main character twists the ring twice ("Twist it once, you're horned and haired;/Twist it twice, and fangs are bared...") shortly before the school Halloween party and lets everyone assume the result was an incredibly good costume.
* MailOrderNovelty: Russell Crannaker recalls at one point how he'd once ordered a pair of [[XRayVision X-ray Specs]] from the back of a ''Muck Critter'' comic, but had sworn off that kind of thing after they turned out to be useless.
* NakedPeopleTrappedOutside: In ''The Monster's Ring'', when Russell uses the ring wrong and gets {{Shapeshifter Mode Lock}}ed, the transformation actually makes him burst into flames, burning up his clothes. He eventually gets his human form back, but his clothes are gone for good, and Mr. Elives says that ''no,'' he doesn't care and Russell has to get out of his shop. Fortunately it's very early morning, and he manages to race back home ''mostly'' unseen. (He tells his parents some older kids stole his clothes and burned them as a prank.)

* PayEvilUntoEvil: After transforming into a demon, the protagonist uses his form to terrify the bullies that have been tormenting him, though he doesn't actually harm them.
* ReadTheFreakingManual: Russell read but didn't pay attention to the final warning for the Monster's Ring -- don't twist it three times, and ''never'' use it on the full moon. He breaks both rules in the end, with permanent consequences. [[spoiler:Namely, he's stuck transforming on every full moon for the rest of his life.]]
* RuleOfThree: "Twist it once, you're horned and haired; Twist it twice, and fangs are bared; Twist it thrice? No one has dared!" [[spoiler:Twist it three times and you're not only stuck that way, you turn ''demonic''.]]
* ShapeshifterModeLock: What happens if you turn the monster's ring three times.
* TransformationTrinket: The monster's ring.

* BodyToJewel: Dragons weep diamonds.

* DisproportionateRetribution: This is basically the whole relationship between Jeremy and his art teacher. Said teacher has discipline with drawing but no talent, while Jeremy is unfocused in class but highly talented. So of course [[SarcasmMode said teacher picks on him at any opportunity he gets, for the crime of being a kid and better than him]].

* JerkassRealization: Jeremy's art teacher when Jeremy asks, "Why do you hate me?" after trying to confess about the hotfoot. This doesn't make him any more pleasant, however, just civil.
* KarmaHoudini: Jeremy's art teacher suffers little to no comeuppance for bullying him, blaming the entire class for a case of his foot getting set on fire (which was Jeremy's fault but also not the point) and being a SadistTeacher. The only good thing he does in the book is to wish Jeremy good luck on going to middle school after a JerkassRealization.

* PassingNotesInClass: In ''Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher'', a girl named Mary Lou sends Jeremy a love note, but his art teacher, who has a habit of treating Jeremy poorly, snatches the note before Jeremy can even open it, then reads it aloud (and tears it up afterward), deliberately embarrassing him in front of his classmates. He also purposely doesn't say who ''sent'' the note, which Jeremy thinks to himself is probably because her father's on the school board.

* BewitchedAmphibians: When Jennifer Murdley's toad kisses a human, the human gets transformed into a toad. Strangely, if he kisses the transformed toad again, the toad merely grows bigger. The only way to cure the transformation is to have another human kiss you, but the catch is that the person who kisses you gets transformed into a toad in your place. Size doesn't transfer over to other people.

* BittersweetEnding: Jennifer [[spoiler:never truly becomes beautiful on the outside, and she loses her new toad when Bufo and his toad love decide to return to Mr. Elives. She gains more confidence in her abilities, and replacement pets in Jerome and Roxanne. It's also implied she's sensible enough to not tell her best friend about big secrets anymore, and her regular bully mellows after being turned into a toad for a while]].

* TheFinalTemptation: In ''Jennifer Murdley's Toad'', the BigBad witch tries a last-ditch effort to persuade Jennifer to hand over her magical toad by showing her a vision of her as a [[IJustWantToBeBeautiful beautiful blonde]] and telling her that she has the power to give her the beauty she's always wanted. Just to drive the point home even further, the chapter in which this happens is titled "The Temptation of Jennifer Murdley". Jennifer manages to [[spoiler:resist the temptation when Bufo reminds her of what Mr. Elives said about "most mirrors are mere errors", and she smashes the mirrors and the witch with her giant tongue.]]
* IJustWantToBeBeautiful: In ''Jennifer Murdley's Toad'', Jennifer is a truly unattractive young girl. At one point when she was younger she saw a commercial for {{Franchise/Barbie}} on TV and started crying. Subverted at the end of the novel, when [[spoiler:Jennifer is shown a magical image in a mirror of how the witch can make her beautiful. All she has to do is hand over the magic toad. She destroys all of the mirrors, knowing she can never be that girl]].

* ShootTheTelevision: Jennifer Murdley was a very unattractive-looking girl. One day when she was six she was watching television and saw a commercial for a Barbie doll. Knowing she would never be as pretty as the doll, she started to cry. When her father saw her crying and realized why, he got so enraged at the [=TV=] that he smashed it.

* TongueTrauma: [[spoiler:At the climax, Jennifer -- at this point a giant toad -- smashes multiple mirrors with her tongue. By the time she's finished, she notes her tongue is bleeding and covered with cuts.]]
* TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside: Jennifer Murdley is an ugly girl with a nice personality. At the climax of the story she encounters a witch who [[spoiler:offers to turn her "inside out", metaphorically speaking, so that her inner beauty will be on the outside, but upon thinking about this, Jennifer realizes that this would make her ugly on the inside, which she realizes would be worse]]. So she stays outwardly ugly (but a good person).

* BaldnessMeansSickness: In ''The Skull of Truth'', Gilbert Dawkins returns from being in the hospital, and is completely bald as a result of his treatment. He later confesses to Charlie that he had cancer, and the treatment to make sure it won't come back made all his hair fall out. In the end of the book, one of the signs that he's recovering and has a hopeful future is that his hair is growing back.

* TheCameo: Overlapping with ContinuityNod -- when Charlie looks out his window after Jerome and Roxanne leave, he sees a girl outside, who happily picks them up and then, walking away, disappears in a swirl of fog. Readers of ''Jennifer Murdley's Toad'' will realize the girl 'is'' Jennifer, who became the pair's caretaker after Bufo and Esmerelda went off together.
* CannotTellALie: Yorick was "blessed" with the inability to lie. This led him to become a jester, the only position in which one could tell the king the truth and get away with it. It was implied this also led to his painful death, after which he became the title skull.

* DemBones: Yorick the skull in ''The Skull of Truth''. He's immobile, but telepathic.

* EveryoneKnewAlready: Charlie's family (at least, his parents and grandmother) congratulates his uncle for coming out of the closet. His parents, in particular, said they were waiting for him to be ready to tell them.

* LiteralGenie: Near the end of ''The Skull of Truth'', the embodiment of Truth offers to truthfully answer any one question for each of the main characters. Mark asks about his father's future and the answer Truth gives him is something along the lines of, "He will grow old. He will be happy. He will be sad. He will die." When Mark complains that the answer wasn't what he wanted, Truth tells him he should have been more specific with his question.
* LittlestCancerPatient: Gilbert.

* OracularHead: Yorick in ''The Skull of Truth''.

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Charlie became a ConsummateLiar since no one would believe whatever he says anyway after the frog incident.

* TruthTellingSession: A truth-telling session happens around a Thanksgiving dinner table because the family is supernaturally compelled to be truthful.

* CueTheFlyingPigs: In ''Juliet Dove, Queen of Love'', Juliet is asked if she'll recite a poem at their town's annual Valentine's Day Poetry Jam, and responds with "When rats fly!" A few days later, the talking rats Roxanne and Jerome wake up with wings (ItMakesSenseInContext -- they'd become temporary avatars of Cupid's power), and Juliet does indeed wind up reciting a poem at the Poetry Jam.
* CurseEscapeClause: In ''Juliet Dove, Queen of Love'', Juliet Dove gets a magic locket stuck around her neck. Because the locket magically causes all men to become obsessed with her [[spoiler:and is the prison of Eros, god of love]], she ''really'' wants to get rid of it. Unfortunately, she can't break the love spell on it until a "mouse roars like a lion" and can't get the locket off without a "mother's touch". [[spoiler:The mouse roaring like a lion refers to her overcoming her shyness and improvising a poem in front of an auditorium of people. The mother's touch is fulfilled when Aphrodite, mother of Eros, touches the locket while acknowledging she was wrong to separate him from Psyche.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough: PlayedForLaughs. All the Dove children are required by their father, a literature professor, to memorize one poem a month, but their mother took the kids' side in insisting that they be able to choose which poems they learn...not quite thinking about the fact that one of said children is a young boy with "enough Creator/ShelSilverstein already tucked away in his head to carry him through the next three years."

* ClingyCostume: The titular mask from ''The Mask of Eamonn Tiyado'', if you break the rules (such as eating or drinking while wearing it). Fortunately, Eamonn Tiyado himself can get it back off.
* {{Metamorphosis}}: ''The Metamorphosis of Justin Jones'' is not actually a perfect example, despite the title. Justin gradually grows wings and gains the ability to fly, but he reverts back to normal after a night. He doesn't know this when he starts out, though.
* ReadTheFreakingManual: The protagonist of ''Watch Out!'' didn't read the full manual for his latest trick (in part because his mother interrupted him before he could finish), a cave-like toy which makes things disappear (but cannot return them), which gets him in trouble when he makes his father's watch disappear and can't get it back. The gnome that the "disappearing" objects are sent to notes that nine out of ten people who use it are the same way.
* WingsDoNothing: Justin wanders into Elives' Magic Shop and ends up purchasing a home magic kit thematically inspired by the metamorphosis trick of stage magic shows. Rather than switching places with an assistant, he finds that it gives him wings -- which don't work. He continues to follow the instructions, but grows increasingly agitated as it's becoming harder and harder to hide them from his abusive uncle, and they still don't let him fly, so his dreams of getting away from said uncle are as kaput as ever. Fortunately for our protagonist, he manages to keep them under wraps until he's finished the process, after which they fill out and do let him fly, and by the time his uncle finds out, he's already headed out the window.

* ShootTheTelevision: Jennifer Murdley was a very unattractive-looking girl. One day when she was six she was watching television and saw a commercial for a Barbie doll. Knowing she would never be as pretty as the doll, she started to cry. When her father saw her crying and realized why, he got so enraged at [=TV=] that he smashed it.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Technically speaking. Dragons are born with their names, but since they can't communicate them to their Hatcher, said Hatcher has to provide them with one. In Jeremy's case, he writes down a list of names from dragons in literature, and asks the dragon's opinion of them. Said dragon isn't satisfied until Jeremy suggests "Tiamat", after the creator goddess from ancient Mesopotamian mythology.

* BigFriendlyDog: Jeremy Thatcher's family has a large golden retriever named Grief.

* BizarreTasteInFood: Jeremy's father ''loves'' chicken livers. Jeremy, on the other hand, doesn't understand how his father can even ''touch'' them, let alone ''eat'' them.

* DisproportionateRetribution: You have discipline with drawing but no talent, and there's a student of yours who is unfocused in class but highly talented. So of course [[SarcasmMode you pick on him at any opportunity you get, for the crime of being a kid and better than you]].

* ExactWords: Mr. Elives warns Jeremy that he doesn't want the dragon egg, but charges him for a quarter. It's because Jeremy will not want to let Tiamat go when she's ready to leave.

* InvisibleToNormals: Most people are unable to see Tiamat. The only ones who can are Jeremy, who hatched her, and Mary Lou.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: The Skull of Truth is actually a friend of Creator/WilliamShakespeare and the actual Yorick/skull used in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.

* HideYourGays: Averted; Charlie's uncle comes out of the closet on Thanksgiving.

* ClingyMacGuffin: Helen of Troy's amulet.

* CoversAlwaysLie: At least one edition of Jennifer Murdley's Toad has a cover depicting Bufo, the toad in question, ranting to Jennifer, who on this cover is depicted as an attractive-looking blonde girl. The problem is that, in the book itself, Jennifer is specifically described as being... well, not as hot as the girl on the cover, to put it mildly. The illustrations in the book, for the record, depict Jennifer as looking fairly unattractive and chubby. It's possible that the girl is meant to be Sharra, who is in fact described as blonde and attractive; even so it still fits, as Sharra is a secondary character who only directly reacts to Bufo a handful of times.

* LoveIsInTheAir: In ''Juliet Dove, Queen of Love'', Juliet comes into possession of a necklace formerly owned by Helen of Troy. The necklace causes every boy in her school to fall in love with her (and cause a commotion by piling up in front of her house), and [[ClingyMacGuffin cannot be removed after being put on]].
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Briefly discussed but averted with Juliet's little brother Byron - the Dove parents were once worried about how his all his artistic endeavors involved drawings of explosions, war and death, but his third-grade teacher assured them every single class she had ever taught included multiple boys with similar artistic proclivities, and that as far as she knew "all but one" had since grown into perfectly normal, non-violent adults.