Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Samuel Warren Joseph and Phil Proctor to bring you this post.
Do you have a reader who loves fantasy and mystery? I have a wonderful book trilogy for you. It is The Magic Maze Trilogy by Samuel Warren Joseph and Phil Proctor. The book is full of mystery and adventure in a magical realm with two siblings just trying find their way home. There is a giveaway after my review!
About the Book:
The Magic Maze Trilogy Written by Samuel Warren Joseph & Phil Proctor
Ages: 9-12 | 244 Pages | Publisher: Sam/Phil Books (2025) | ISBN: 979-8-9927464-6-4
Publisher’s Book Summary: The Magic Maze Trilogy includes three books: Tyler and Tess in the Magic Maze; Madness in the Magic Maze; and Escape from the Magic Maze. It is about eleven-year old fraternal twins, Tyler and Tess Porter, who accidentally get sucked up into the bizarre world of the Magic Maze. Geared to appeal to children from seven to thirteen and older fantasy fans as well, the story propels the twins into an “Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz” world. In order to return home, they must get through twelve separate parts of the maze. Each is its own world with strange rules, riddles and puzzles that the twins must solve using their wits, knowledge and athletic prowess. Tyler and Tess learn how much they mean to each other as they evade the evil QUEEN ZEBRA and her ZENTAURIAN GUARD of two-faced POLINERDS, and a duplicitous wizard, SIMON PERCIVAL. They form alliances with the rebel TRIDGETS (tiny trolls with Mohawk hairdos) led by the feisty BELKIN, and an assortment of other bizarre and funny characters. At the end, they must track down and put back together three parts of a MAGIC AMULET before they can be finally transported home, safe and sound.
Purchase Links:
About the Authors:
Samuel Warren Joseph
Samuel Warren Joseph’s credits include the movie Off Your Rocker, a comedy-drama about a revolution in an old folks’ home starring Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Dorothy Malone, and Lou Jacobi.
He has written animation episodes for such shows as Duck Tales, Dennis the Menace, Batman and Beast Wars.
Sam’s stage play, Window of Opportunity, a suspenseful dark comedy about corporate corruption, premiered at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles in the spring of 2006 to rave reviews. It has been turned into a feature film, which he wrote and directed, and was released in 2015. The film was produced and co-scored by John Densmore, the drummer of The Doors.
Sam wrote the book and co-wrote the songs for the stage musical Campaign, which premiered in October 2010 to excellent reviews.
His couple’s comedy, Two Times Two, also had its world premiere in 2010 in New Orleans to great reviews.
In 2016, his musical, Psychosexual: A Love Story, for which he wrote the book and lyrics, premiered at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles. The same year, his play, Moral Imperative, had its world premiere at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills.
With Phil Proctor, Sam co-wrote God Help Us!… a political comedy that toured the United States starring the late Ed Asner. Sam also co-wrote Ed’s autobiography, Son of a Junkman.
With Phil Proctor, Sam also co-wrote The Magic Maze Trilogy.
Sam has also been a special education teacher in inner city Los Angeles and currently is a community college Assistant Professor of English.
Phil Proctor
Phil Proctor was born of Amish/Irish ancestry in Goshen, Indiana, and is a founding member of the thrice-Grammy-nominated Firesign Theatre (one of the “Thirty Greatest Acts of All Time”), whose archives were purchased by the Library of Congress. He’s appeared on and off-Broadway, toured the USSR with the Yale Russian Chorus, and also toured the US and Canada with the L.A. Guitar Quartet as Don Quixote.
He has appeared in scores of commercials, audiobooks, video games, radio and TV shows, and films, including Window of Opportunity, written and directed by his partner, Samuel Joseph. Phil received Theatre World, LA Weekly, LA Free Press and Drama Critics’ awards over his long career.
His voice credits include memorable characters in Academy Award-winning films for Pixar and Disney, the Drunken French Monkey in Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Vidic in Assassin’s Creed, Simon Stagg in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Howard in the multi-Emmy winning Rugrats, which has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He recently appeared in the world premiere of Dan Castellaneta’s For Piano and Harpo at the Gary Marshall Theatre, is a 20-year member of The Antaeus Theater company, and has written several new books, including his autobiography, Where’s My Fortune Cookie? co-authored by Brad Schreiber. With Samuel Joseph, he co-wrote a political comedy, God Help Us!, which toured the country starring the late Ed Asner to rave reviews.
To learn more about Phil, visit PlanetProctor.com.
To learn more about the series, visit MagicMaze.com.
From Me:
The Proctor twins are sucked into a magical realm of a maze. The maze is full of creatures--some human and some not. No one has been able to escape it but supposedly if someone can make it through the twelve parts of the maze they will be able to leave. The twins are going to try. Of course, they don't know who to trust or even who is telling the truth. There are the maze master, Myron, and Queen Zebra who wants to rule over everyone and does so with cruelty and fear and there is the wizard, Simon Percival, who also built the Stone Mount where they got sucked into the Magic Maze as did he. The kids use their wits and logical thinking to pass each part of the maze and to figure out what is really going on. There are messages within the story about people's quest for power and control. The book has all three books within it and each book picks up where the last one left off.
The first book pulls you right into the story. The twins are very different from one another. Tess is the brainy one who loves school and tries her best there. Tyler is the one who likes to joke around and often is not trying his best. They both love to play soccer. Each of their personalities and skills come in handy within the maze. They also learn how much they complete each other and love each other. In the real world they were always fighting and teasing one another but they learn they must trust and count on each other to get through the maze and find their way home. The story is fast paced and interesting. Each character is interesting and well developed. The story flows well and is a page turner.
I love the skills needed to get through the mazes. Sometimes it is word games and other times it is logic puzzles. There are some other skills as well but often it comes back to some kind of puzzle or riddle the kids need to solve. It has critical thinking skills built into the story! It has math skills as well as one of the puzzles involves prime numbers. I also love the messages about the desire to have power over others. I feel these books are perfect for any middle grade reader to read on his or her own but also perfect for a class to read and discuss. The discussions about the puzzles as well as about the various characters who are fighting and why they are fighting each other would be amazing to have with a class. It would even be fun for a parent and child to read together. I always loved when Hazel and I would read books together and be able to talk about them. The trilogy is also perfect for gifting this holiday season!!
Giveaway:
As part of this virtual book tour, one lucky winner will receive a classroom set of The Magic Maze Trilogy in paperback! Good luck!!
