Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher

The Magic Shop series features an array of stand-alone children’s fantasy novels and short stories that Bruce Coville wrote and published between 1989 and 2003. The series as a whole is unified by the common motif of a mysterious magic shop, Elives’s Magic Supplies, which magically appears to those who need something from it. Each story focuses on a different child who is preoccupied with a specific problem and stumbles upon the shop. Each one is given a magical item or creature by the old shopkeeper, Mr. S. H. Elives. The first book is The Monster’s Ring (1989), alternately titled Russell Troy, Monster Boy, which centers on a frequently bullied boy named Russell who receives a magic ring that allows him to turn into a monster. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher is the second novel in the series and focuses on Jeremy Thatcher, the son of a veterinarian, who is given a dragon egg to hatch and raise. In the third book, Jennifer Murdley’s Toad (1993), a girl named Jennifer, who would do anything to be beautiful, receives a talking, magical toad named Bufo. The Skull of Truth (1999), or Charlie Eggleston’s Talking Skull, is the fourth book and centers on a boy, Charlie, known for being a liar.