Magic Shop
#6173.95 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 5 books Status Unfinished 1982–2003 Reading commitment Medium Bruce Coville Last reviewed 2026-11-01
Overview
The Magic Shop books are a series of five middle-grade fantasy novels by the American author Bruce Coville, published between 1982 and 2003. Each story is set in an ordinary modern town and follows a different child who walks into a mysterious shop run by the elderly Mr. Elives, whose name is also written S. H. Elives. The child leaves with a magical object or creature, such as a ring that turns its wearer into a monster, a dragon egg, a talking toad, a skull that forces the truth or an amulet of love, and has to deal with the results. Mr. Elives, his friend the librarian Hyacinth Priest and the talking rats Jerome and Roxanne connect the books. The last novel appeared in 2003 and no further book has been announced.
Urban fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (5 works) counts toward ranking
Magic Shop Bruce Coville
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Monster's Ring | 1982 | 1 | core | 3.78 (3,256 ratings) |
 | Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher | 1991 | 2 | core | 4.06 (8,896 ratings) |
 | Jennifer Murdley's Toad; The talking rats Jerome and Roxanne first appear at the end of this book. | 1992 | 3 | core | 3.90 (2,611 ratings) |
 | The Skull of Truth | 1997 | 4 | core | 3.89 (1,623 ratings) |
 | Juliet Dove, Queen of Love | 2003 | 5 | core | 3.85 (1,647 ratings) |
Five stand-alone adventures in which different children buy a magical object or creature from Mr. Elives' mysterious shop.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Magic Shop? Magic Shop's Core Canon is 5 books.
- What is the reading order for Magic Shop? Publication order, starting with The Monster's Ring. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Magic Shop finished? Unfinished (1982–2003).
- How much reading does Magic Shop take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 5 Core Canon books).
- How is Magic Shop ranked? #617 in this site's official ranking, based on 18,033 reader ratings across 5 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #617?
Ranked #617 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.95 across 5 core books.
- A smaller readership (18,033 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #616, Cygnet (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 5 books · Unfinished · 18k ratings · Ranks #617 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length urban fantasy universe.
Reading order
Publication order (5 Core Canon books)
- The Monster's Ring (1982)
- Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (1991)
- Jennifer Murdley's Toad (1992)
- The Skull of Truth (1997)
- Juliet Dove, Queen of Love (2003)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Utah Children's Book Award, 1994: won: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
- Mythopoeic Award (Children's Literature), 1992: nominated: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher
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Suggestions computed from what Magic Shop and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Ash Mistry Chronicles Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.00
- Savvy Urban fantasy · Unfinished · Medium commitment · 4.00
- City of Ghosts Urban fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.94
- The Indian in the Cupboard Urban fantasy / Historical fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.92
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.95 across 18,033 ratings on 5 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon Extension: 27 universes from the candidate register; 3 candidates ruled out accepted 2026-11-01
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia: Magic Shop (series) Tier 2
- Wikipedia: Bruce Coville Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-11-01
Rule: Core Canon = the five Magic Shop novels, from The Monster's Ring (1982) to Juliet Dove, Queen of Love (2003). Short stories set in the shop, published in Coville's Oddities collections, are excluded.