Nesbit was Eager's biggest influence, but Eager gives props to a multitude of books and authors (see the recommended reading page for more). Not only are such books name-dropped in his books, but occasionally his characters even step into the worlds of their favorite stories. Still very much set in the real world, Eager refers to the adventures the kids experience as 'daily magic.' Possibly the best parts of Eager's novels are his constant references to other books he felt that children should read. If these rules are broken, this will lead to all sorts of consequences.

What's different, though, is that this magic comes with rules that the children must learn. Eager's books involve groups of four or five, usually well-read, young children who experience extraordinary, magical events not unlike those they read about in books.

His final book, Seven-Day Magic (1962) features yet another group of children and their encounter this time with a magic book. But that, of course, is for the reader to decide. Eager's next books, Magic or Not? and The Well-Wishers (19) feature a new cast of characters and strange sets of circumstances that, unlike those in the previous books, may or may not actually be magic at work. Magic by the Lake (1957) follows the further adventures of the Half Magic kids, and The Time Garden features the Knight's Castle characters, but both sequels tell the story of a sort of crossover between the two generations. Knight's Castle served as an indirect sequel to Half Magic, as the second book stars the children of two of Half Magic's protagonists. It would seem that the success of Eager's books was responsible for the Nesbit books being brought back into print in the late 50s, available in the U.S. This novel was loosely based on Nesbit's The Magic City interspersed with Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Half Magic was a critical success, as was his next book, Knight's Castle(1956). After all, the book opens with the four children who star in the story reading Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle. Nesbit's influence is clear in his first novel, Half Magic (1954). According to an online biography unfortunately by an unnamed individual, it was while Eager searched for books to read to his young son that he discovered the works of British novelist E.

Edward eager