Where’s My Wand?

By: Meghan White

            Everyone believes in magic at one point in their life, but in Where’s My Wand, magic is what keeps Eric Poole from just giving up on everything. This little belief that he has does greater work than God ever had for him. He has to use something to control his insane Mother and help keep him from getting beat up every single day since he was 8, so why not take after his idol, Endora from Bewitched.

            This book is set in the late 60’s and 70’s. This time span allows us to follow Eric from when he was 8 all the way through 10^th grade. The trip that he takes us through has a hold of your attention to the very last sentence. Right from the very first chapter we learn everything about him. This poor little boy knew his sexual preference from an early age of 8. He didn’t know what the feelings were or even that it was possible to be attracted to the same sex. He was just glad that he wasn’t having the feelings that girls make boys feel that lead to sinful actions. Eric’s a good hearted Christian and follows the rules of God. He lets us see that even Christians can be gay. It is a personal preference, it doesn’t matter what you believe, it’s what you feel.

            Throughout the book we learn that Eric wasn’t very popular in school, he had a new bully in every grade, and very rarely found friends. When he would make a new friend, he would lose them from something that really mattered, no one wanted to leave Eric, he is a very likeable person, it’s just hard for kids to get past the fact that he’s deaf in one ear and not as good looking as the other kids. But he is a very nice and smart young boy. When he does stand up for himself his bullies back down. They just need a taste of their own medicine, or a foot to their throat, and they then leave little Eric alone.

When he wants something to happen, he runs to the basement to drape his bedspread over himself and right the wrongs that have occurred. He summons all of his powers that he can possibly conjure and flies through the universe and can see the future that he wants. His magic doesn’t always work the way he expects it to, but he realizes that maybe the way it actually happens is better.

This memoir is of a very realistic life. We see the pain that he endured for 7 years of his life, and his sister Valerie was of no help. She would only blackmail him and rat him out to mother when she caught him twirling around in the basement with his bedspread draped over his shoulders. But he gets her back when she takes her boyfriend into the forbidden living room, rather than the family room. We’re with him through everything from his mothers’ wild antics to him becoming best friends with a girl who has no arms. This book really shows us that we can triumph anything as long as believe in ourselves.