History Literature / HalfMagic

Siblings Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha are faced with a long, boring summer with nothing to look forward to but library books. [[DisappearedDad Ever since their father died]], [[StrugglingSingleMother their mother spends most of her time working]] to support the family, leaving the children with not a lot of money or opportunity for summer adventures. All that changes when Jane calls dibs on a nickel lying on the sidewalk, triggering a strange series of coincidences. The "nickel" seems to jump between the children, all of whom quickly find themselves caught in inexplicable jams until they finally realize that the nickel is actually [[ArtifactOfPower a magical charm]] that grants wishes by halves. It's a simple matter of mathematics to get exactly what you want, so long as you don't do anything rash--which of course, they do. Their wishes leave them stranded in the middle of the desert, wrecking chaos on King Arthur's court, and causing a mass panic when one of the children accidentally becomes half-invisible.

* TheRoaringTwenties: ''Half Magic'' is set in 1924, though the year doesn't have a lot to do with the plot save for a short scene at the movies where Martha, who's too young to read, complains that none of her siblings will read the dialogue cards for her.

* ParentWithNewParamour: The kids introduce their mother to the new paramour, and are mostly quite happy with the whole situation -- except that they think it'd be strange to call him "father", so he gets declared an honorary uncle.

** After causing chaos in Camelot, Merlin makes a wish on the charm to prevent it from being used to travel beyond its own place and time, both to protect the children and to keep them from wrecking havoc on history.

* BornOfMagic: The children find out that Achmed once had the charm but lost it for many years. To make things right, Mark makes a wish on it to give him whatever he would desire most, which turns out to be six children (and a wife).

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: The family cat Carrie is named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Chapman_Catt Carrie Chapman Catt]].

* AncientArtifact: The Arabic trader seems to recognize the symbols on the charm, as does Merlin. [[spoiler: Jane's temporary replacement mother]] identifies the writing on the charm as Sanskrit. Whatever it is, it seems to have been around for a long, long time.

** When the children find out the charm previously belonged to the Arabian trader, Mark uses it to give him "twice as much of whatever he would wish for with it." That turns out to be younger camels, rich stuffs for trading, a loving wife, and six children.

* OutnumberedSibling: Mark is the only boy in a family of four children and his frustration with this is occasionally a plot point.

* HappilyMarried: When the children find out the charm previously belonged to the Arabian trader, Mark uses it to give him "twice as much of whatever he would wish for with it." That turns out to be younger camels, rich stuffs for trading, a loving wife, and six children.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: The Arabian trader owned the charm before the children and apparently lost it at some point.

* UngratefulBastard: Downplayed with Lancelot, he does thanks the children for rescuing him but is rather dubious about being saved by magic and has them restore the knights so he can have a proper fight.