Title The Sorcerer's Apprentice Series Contes Familiers Author Anne McKie Illustrated By Ken McKie Publisher Ladybird Books - 1989 First Printing Ladybird Books - 1985 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters The sorcerer, Jean Main Elements Magicians

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The Magician's (or Sorcerer's) Apprentice is a famous tale based on the poem Der Zauberlehrling by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Now the poem, as you can see, is pretty short, and contains the broom scene made famous by Disney's Fantasia.

This books expands a lot on the original tale, making the sorcerer evil, stealing food from the villagers while they starve, and making the apprentice a hero, Jean who becomes the sorcerer's servant in the hopes of learning magic to defeat his master. With the help of a talking crow, who is also a prisoner of the evil mage, Jean strives to help the villagers, while of course enchanting some brooms to help him lug water around!

I like the lovely watercolour illustrations.

The version of the book I have is in French, though the original was English, and yes, I did get it from Burger King!