Mark Reads ‘The Wizard’s Dilemma’: Chapter 1

In the first chapter of The Wizard’s Dilemma, Nita tries to find out what “normal” really is after her summer in Ireland. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Young Wizards. 

Ah, this chapter is already a delight, cousins! It’s fun to see how much more quickly Duane settles into this story without having to rely on explaining much to the reader. At the same time, I’d argue that this chapter must rely on the events in A Wizard Abroad to have the emotional weight that Duane wants it to carry.  It’s only after one surreal adventure after another that Nita tries to settle down. But can she?

Normal

That’s such a funny word, isn’t it? Normal is always going to be relative. To people, to places, to times, to cultures, to societies. In the opening scene of The Wizard’s Dilemma, Duane challenges the notion of what’s relative by presenting us with a conversation that, to us, is utterly unreal. It seems fantastical and silly and over-the-top because Nita and her mother discuss wizardry so casually. At the same time, as readers of this series, it is utterly normal to us, perhaps one of the most “normal” moments in the series thus far. What other book could open like this, and we’d accept it completely?

“Honey, have you seen your sister?”

“She’s on Jupiter, Mom.”

There was no immediate response to this piece of news. Sitting at a dining-room table covered with notebooks, a few schoolbooks, and one book that had less to do with school than the others, Nita Callahan glanced over her shoulder just in time to catch the sight of her mother looking at the ceiling with an expression that said, What have I done to deserve this?

We know how that’s possible; we understand why Nita would state this without grandeur or celebration or awe; we get why Betty’s response is an inward groan, a slight annoyance at this turn of events. Duane barely acknowledges the logistics of Dairine’s trip to Europa because this is the new normal. Even for this series so far, it’s a shift, since Betty is far more inquisitive about wizardry than we’re used to seeing. She’s accepted that it exists and that her daughters are wizards, so now, we’re in the understanding period. She just wants to get what her daughters are so wrapped up in, rather than fight them on it.

There’s been a shift for Nita, too: high school! Ah, the comfort of being able to easily complete work, destroyed over the course of just one summer. I’d heard that the difficulty of course work changed from junior high to high school here in the States, but it wasn’t so much the challenge of the content as the sheer volume was way worse. I went from having maybe one or two projects a week to complete in seven days to upwards of TEN. Now, like Kit, I was immediately taking Honors classes once I started in ninth grade; by the time I was a junior (grade 11), I had multiple AP classes and would do about six hours of homework PER NIGHT just to get through that year. (If anyone ever wonders how I can be so prolific on Mark Reads and Mark watches, THERE YOU GO. I learned young.)

Yet the change is very dramatic for Nita, so much so that she wonders if she’ll continue to drift away from the life she had. What if Kit starts spending less time with her? What if they stop being friends and wizard partners? How can Nita even conceive of a future like that?

Anxiety

Thus, I think Nita’s anxiety over change is what’s at work here. She is quick to frustration over Kit in the final scenes of the chapter as the two of them struggle to find a solution to the pollution in bay. Now, I’m not saying that Kit’s behavior isn’t frustrating; it’s definitely not fun to have someone tell you that you’re being too complicated. But Nita and Kit have generally had a decent amount of patience for one another, even when they disagreed. That patience appears to have evaporated over the summer, or perhaps it’s a much more recent thing. Maybe the pressure of schoolwork piling up, on top of Kit’s changing social life at school, on top of Dairine going off on adventures… maybe it’s all running Nita raw at the edges. She’s under so much pressure already, and THIS IS THE FIRST CHAPTER. So I get why she behaves as she does here, and I’m curious to see how this will manifest in the rest of this book.

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Mark Links Stuff

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