THE MAGIC POTION; A COLLECTION OF WRITINGS BY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. St. John's Jesperson Press, c1985. 88pp, paper, $6.95, ISBN 0-950502-66-0. CIP Grades 4-6 Reviewed by Margaret Montgomery Volume 14 Number 3 1986 May Thirty-five prose selections and ten short poems make up this collection of writing by children of St. John's. Newfoundland Roman Catholic schools. There are a few black-and-white line drawings by the children. An author and title index is included. Some of the prose pieces are only half-a-page long, while others are three to four pages. Material of this type is of interest to parents, grand-parents, and friends of the young writers, but not to many other people, young or old. The writing is not particularly interesting, nor of special merit. The preface states that this slim volume, eighty-eight pages long, is the result of a Young Writers' Workshop; the book is "a collection of writings which represents the varied interests and writing styles of this age group." The children are in grades 4.5, and 6. The paperbound book itself is nicely done, and the cover illustration by Richard Steele is the best thing about the work. The review copy is already failing apart because the glue is deficient. Margaret Montgomery, West Vernon E.S., Vernon, B.C.