The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris

A New York Times bestseller and USA Today bestselling book! An award-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris introduces his first magical book in a new series with plenty of tricks up to its sleeve. The fourth and final edition of the actor/writer Harris’ middle-grade fantasy series, ”The Magic Misfits: The Fourth Suit,” is out on Tuesday (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 224 pp.).

The book is about a group of kids who band together to protect their town from the evil forces. Each main character has a different background, appearance, family structure and interests for every individual to read. According to the author we are often divisive in the world and in the country in our fourth grade classes which is how we naturally strive for independence by judging the differences in others. Thus, the author recognises this attribute and uses it in a positive way.

“More than anything, my goal with the books and with my children as well, is for them to ….take away not only messages about inclusion and acceptance and being OK with vulnerability, but also how to palm a quarter and how to practice and use misdirection in order to be more effective in communication,” he says, referencing the magic tricks sprinkled throughout the series.

Harris aims about the middle-grade reading material to be more of ‘Goonies’ and adds about being in the world of hidden caverns and secret messages, the difficulties to steer for some conversations that might apply in different ways.