A Trick of the Light is Book One of A Kind of Magic, a three-volume novel of eco-magical realism. It's a book about transition: from childhood to adolescence; from isolation to community; from passivity to action. From fantasy to the real world. It is deliberately aimed at 4th - 6th graders, and can be read as a whole or as three short school library books: A Trick of the Light, Turtle Crossing and ThunderHawk. This trilogy of short books for middle-grade readers follows a boy's awakening to the beauties and needs of the natural world around him, with the help of his friends, his family, his community and the mysterious spirit of the forest.