Wizard's Holiday
by Diane Duane
Harcourt, 2003, ISBN 0-15-204771-9
A book review by Elisabeth Carey
The latest in the Young Wizards series. Dairine, Nita, and their father are all still coping with the death of Mrs. Callahan in a previous book, and not doing it all that well yet. Dairine signs herself and Nita up for a wizards' cultural exchange program, unfortunately without first consulting Nita, their supervisory wizards, or their father. When the truth comes out, Mr. Callahan and the senior wizards ground Dairine. Nita and Kit go off on the cultural exchange program, while Dairine stays home with her dad to host the young alien wizards who are about to arrive in their home. Nita and Kit land in an idyllic world which only ever has one wizard at a time because that's all it needs. D airine and Mr. Callahan find themselves hosting a friendly, tree-like wizard who puts vegetarianism in a whole new light for them, another, stranger, more mechanicially-inclined wizard who needs to be told that the plates and silverware are not to be consumed along with the food, and a very humanoid wizard who, sadly, is an arrogant, self-important prig. Naturally, both groups have to save the world (the world they're on.) Good fun, but nothing special.
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