Louis Sachar, the author of Holes and the Wayside School series, has spent nearly half a century writing books for kids. And he was originally going to continue that streak with his new novel, The Magician of Tiger Castle.

It takes place in the 16th century, in the Kingdom of Esquaveta. The young Princess Tullia is betrothed to a no-good prince of a rival kingdom. She's in love with a man named Pito whom her father has locked up in the dungeon.

But then there's Anatole. The middle-aged potions guy who is Princess Tullia's close friend and confidant. In the early drafts, Anatole was just the quirky narrator. But Sachar says he just took over the whole narrative, "and you can't really have a children's book with a 40-year-old main character."

Sachar was in his early 20s when he wrote h

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