* Editor's note: Birthday partygoers find out there's...

* Editor's note: Birthday partygoers find out there's more to magic than pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

It's my sister's seventh birthday.

Entertainer calls in sick.

Poor Louise is brokenhearted.

Better find a backup quick!

Call the ghost, the clown, the dragon.

Call the circus and the zoo.

Only Maxwell the Magician

Isn't booked today at two.

Party starts. Magician enters.

Hocus pocus! What a shock!

Stumbles through his incantation ...

Turns Louise into a rock.

Joey grabs the rock and hollers,

"Look what's happened to Louise!"

Mother thunders at the wizard,

"Don't just stand there! Fix her, please!"

Just as Joey starts to throw her,

Maxwell yells a magic word.

All at once, Louise is falling,

Still a rock ...

But Joe's a bird.

Joey's flying skills are dismal.

Swoops and falters in midair.

Hits a lamp shade, tumbles over,

Snags a claw in Katie's hair.

"Get him off me!" clamors Katie.

Maxwell bows and taps his hat.

In an instant, Joe's untangled.

Too bad Kate is now a cat.

Kate the cat is eyeing Joey.

Seems to think he's kitty chow.

"Katie, no!" I say. "It's Joey!"

Katie stares and says,

"Meeeeooow."

"I give up!" the wizard whimpers.

"Doesn't seem to be my day."

Grabs the phone and calls his office.

"Please send Alex right away!"

Doorbell rings. A child enters.

"Who are you?" my mother cries.

"I am here to help my uncle.

Call me Al," the boy replies.

Alex crouches down before us,

Barely breathing, in a trance.

Then he orders, "Start the music!"

And begins a wild dance.

Shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders,

Leaps and lunges, skips and hops.

Claps his hands and yells,

"Reverse it!"

"Back to normal," Al announces.

"Oh, thank heaven," Maxwell sighs.

Pack their bags and start to exit.

"Not so fast!" my mother cries.

"Quite a show!" she tells the duo.

"Simply brilliant! Splendid! Grand!

But you missed one tiny detail."

Mother reaches out her hand.

"Not the rock trick, Uncle Maxwell!"

Al is gasping. "Is it true?"

Maxwell nods. His nephew cringes.

"That's the hardest to undo!"

Alex takes Louise from Mother.

Sets her down beside the clock.

"Time go backward!" Alex orders,

But Louise remains a rock.

Al collapses on the sofa.

Bows his head as if to doze.

Tiny feather floating by him

Passes right beneath his nose.

"There's a tickle in my nostril."

Al aaaaachoooos! A giant sneeze.

Spills a soda on my sister,

And the rock becomes Louise.

Mother hugs her. Father blubbers,

"Oh, you're back, my little pet!"

But Louise just yawns and mutters,

"Is it time for presents yet?"

"What a party!" say the neighbors.

"Great magician! Best in town!"

Still I think that for my birthday,

I would rather have a clown.

Excerpted from the book MAXWELL'S MAGIC MIX-UP. Text copyright c 2001 by Linda Ashman, illustrations copyright c 2001 by Regan Dunnick. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. All rights reserved.