MAGIC WORDS • "You're right, abracadabra is a magic word to make things appear or disappear." -- Monalisa DeGross, Donavan's Word Jar (1998) • "Abracadabra from nowhere, with lightning and thunder, you entered life, you stepped on life's giant stage." -- Sorana Salomeia, "Simsalabim" (2004) • "'Abracadabra' swings. If you don't believe me, pronounce it slowly, out loud, one syllable at a time, and tap your feet and snap your fingers while you say it. Crazy, man." -- Brian Fleury, "Ardara Town" (2002) • "I remember being about seven years old and sent by my teacher to fetch a tube of glue from another class which was full. I walked in and received the object. 'Kevin, what's the magic word?' I was asked upon receiving it. I had never heard of this saying before and replied straight-faced 'Abracadabra.' The whole class erupted in hysterical and loud laughter. The teacher glared angrily at me obviously thinking I was trying to be smart. I was asked again and I said, 'It works.'" -- Kevin Phillips, quoted in Loving Mr. Spock by Barbara Jacobs (200 ) • "'You know the magic words?' Vili asked. Rori looked at his mother. 'Not magic words,' Vili whispered. 'Magician's words.' 'Abracadabra?' 'Shssh . . . ,' Vili said. 'Our secret, remember?'" -- Anna Porter, The Storyteller (2000) • "'[N]ow I will say a few magic words, and my assistants will disappear!' Rapping on Julian's cabinet I shouted, 'Abracadabra!' which was the only thing that came into my head. I might lose points with the Great Chamberlain for lacking imagination, but if the trick worked, it wouldn't matter." -- Joan Lowery Nixon, A Deadly Game of Magic (198 ) • "Let's get the Ingoldsby Legends. There's a thing about Abra-cadabra there,' said Cyril, yawning. 'We may as well play at magic. Let's be Knights Templars. They were awfully gone on magic. They used to work spells or something with a goat and a goose. Father says so.'" -- Edith Nesbit, The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) • "We had a delightful custom in nursery days, devised by my mother, that on festival occasions, such as birthdays or at Christmas, our presents were given us in the evening by a fairy called Abracadabra. The first time the fairy appeared, we heard, after tea, in the hall, the hoarse notes of a horn. We rushed out in amazement. Down in the hall, talking to an aunt of mine who was staying in the house, stood a veritable fairy, in a scarlet dress, carrying a wand and a scarlet bag, and wearing a high pointed scarlet hat, of the shape of an extinguisher. My aunt called us down; and we saw that the fairy had the face of a great ape, dark-brown, spectacled, of a good-natured aspect, with a broad grin, and a curious crop of white hair, hanging down behind and on each side. Unfortunately my eldest brother, a very clever and imaginative child, was seized with a panic so insupportable at the sight of the face, that his present had to be given him hurriedly, and