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Magic The Crest is a 128-page fantasy adventure novel by eleven-year-old Portland author Rena Marthaler. Rena wrote Magic through participation in the Young Writers Program of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2013. She wrote the first draft of the sequel with NaNoWriMo 2014.
Rena has written about other books and other young writers at renamarth.wordpress.com. Click on the images below to read more about Magic The Crest. Contact: magicthecrest at gmail.com. |
Magic The Crest is available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com. It's carried in Portland Public School K-8 libraries, Multnomah County libraries, and at the following Portland, Oregon bookstores:
Wallace Books (Sellwood) Powell's Books (Hawthorne) Reading Frenzy (N. Mississippi) |
Select Blurbs and Reviews:
"Shape-shifting dragons, unheard-of planets, lots of magic, and a bit of nine-year-old imagination combine to create an unforgettable story. A definite 5 stars." Young reviewer and author J.C. Buchanan's review
"Kids will fall under the spell much the way they have with Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling; adults will sit back and enjoy how the childhood imagination can take off at cheetah-speed, basking in the nostalgia when they wrote their first fantasy novel ... and thoroughly enjoy how smart-aleky the main character, Rachel can be…." Portland's Wallace Books review here
"I had to rip the book out of my 11-year-old's hands at bedtime!" Portland State University professor, Graduate School of Publishing
"I can't keep copies on the shelf!" Portland elementary school librarian
"There are so many great things about this book, I have read it three times. But first I have to say, girl power!" Ten-year-old reviewer
"If a ten year old can finish a novel, I can finish mine." Writers' conference attendee
"I have to say I haven't been so impressed by the sheer hyper-adorableness of a book. Ever. Even scaling my own creations down to when I was in the author's age group, I never even conceived of a journey so huge and epic in scope…" Amazon reviewer
"Shape-shifting dragons, unheard-of planets, lots of magic, and a bit of nine-year-old imagination combine to create an unforgettable story. A definite 5 stars." Young reviewer and author J.C. Buchanan's review
"Kids will fall under the spell much the way they have with Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling; adults will sit back and enjoy how the childhood imagination can take off at cheetah-speed, basking in the nostalgia when they wrote their first fantasy novel ... and thoroughly enjoy how smart-aleky the main character, Rachel can be…." Portland's Wallace Books review here
"I had to rip the book out of my 11-year-old's hands at bedtime!" Portland State University professor, Graduate School of Publishing
"I can't keep copies on the shelf!" Portland elementary school librarian
"There are so many great things about this book, I have read it three times. But first I have to say, girl power!" Ten-year-old reviewer
"If a ten year old can finish a novel, I can finish mine." Writers' conference attendee
"I have to say I haven't been so impressed by the sheer hyper-adorableness of a book. Ever. Even scaling my own creations down to when I was in the author's age group, I never even conceived of a journey so huge and epic in scope…" Amazon reviewer
Book summary:
Magic The Crest is the story of four ten-year-old girls who receive a prophecy at their schoolyard to travel to Oregon to save a girl lost on Mt. Hood. After a successful rescue, the five embark on an adventure across the universe in search of The Crest. The girls discover they are "Magics," endowed with the elemental powers of earth, storm, fire and ice. On their adventure, they befriend shape-shifting dragons, a wolf-dog, talking chipmunks, and a fire cat, who keep them company and aid them in battle. The girls succeed in collecting gems they need for their quest, but only after together escaping foes like the hypnotizing green ball of terror, an army of three-eyed flesh-eating eels, and a giant bear King with a hankering for a fight.
How the novel came into being:
Rena came home from fourth grade one day in October 2013 with the assignment to finish a story. But she wanted to write an entire book based on the imaginary game she played at recess with her friends. For support, she signed up for NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, and on November 1, set her word-count goal to about 20,000. She wrote five hours a day during November to finish the competition. The book was published soon after using Amazon's CreateSpace platform. Every November, the Young Writers Program is used in classrooms across the country, or kids can participate on their own, like Rena did.
Magic The Crest is the story of four ten-year-old girls who receive a prophecy at their schoolyard to travel to Oregon to save a girl lost on Mt. Hood. After a successful rescue, the five embark on an adventure across the universe in search of The Crest. The girls discover they are "Magics," endowed with the elemental powers of earth, storm, fire and ice. On their adventure, they befriend shape-shifting dragons, a wolf-dog, talking chipmunks, and a fire cat, who keep them company and aid them in battle. The girls succeed in collecting gems they need for their quest, but only after together escaping foes like the hypnotizing green ball of terror, an army of three-eyed flesh-eating eels, and a giant bear King with a hankering for a fight.
How the novel came into being:
Rena came home from fourth grade one day in October 2013 with the assignment to finish a story. But she wanted to write an entire book based on the imaginary game she played at recess with her friends. For support, she signed up for NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, and on November 1, set her word-count goal to about 20,000. She wrote five hours a day during November to finish the competition. The book was published soon after using Amazon's CreateSpace platform. Every November, the Young Writers Program is used in classrooms across the country, or kids can participate on their own, like Rena did.
About the author:
Rena Marthaler lives in Portland, Oregon. She is a compulsive reader with a list a mile long of books TBR, including any books written by young writers. She loves her two dogs, playing guitar and basketball, Girl Scouts, Minecraft, and inventing recipes a la Chopped. Rena was featured in the January, 2015 issue of American Girl magazine, has spoken about writing in classrooms, at Bay View Mission in San Francisco, and at Cloud Cap Games in Portland to share the student-created board game based on her book.
Rena Marthaler lives in Portland, Oregon. She is a compulsive reader with a list a mile long of books TBR, including any books written by young writers. She loves her two dogs, playing guitar and basketball, Girl Scouts, Minecraft, and inventing recipes a la Chopped. Rena was featured in the January, 2015 issue of American Girl magazine, has spoken about writing in classrooms, at Bay View Mission in San Francisco, and at Cloud Cap Games in Portland to share the student-created board game based on her book.
