Magical Mysteries Books in Order
Part ofMary Stanton Books in OrderSee the Magical Mysteries series by Mary Stanton in order, with short book summaries, series background, and guidance on reading Natalie and Denny’s magical adventures from the beginning.
Last updated: December 23, 2025
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Publication Order
3 books
White Magic
by Mary Stanton
1997
Natalie dreams of riding on an Olympic equestrian team, but her beloved horse is small and ordinary. Tempted by Denny's growing magical talents, she considers reshaping the pony into something grander, only to learn that changing another being's nature brings consequences no spell can erase.
Next Door Witch
by Mary Stanton
1997
Natalie and Denny take a job caring for a neighbor's horse and find a starved, scarred animal in the hands of a woman with a fearsome reputation. As strange events mount, the siblings must decide whether she is truly a witch and how far they will go to save the horse.
My Aunt, the Monster
by Mary Stanton
1997
When seven-year-old Denny uses a strange powder to cast a spell, he accidentally merges his cranky Aunt Matty, his sister's cat and his parakeet into one ill-tempered griffin. Thirteen-year-old Natalie must hide the creature at her uncle's horse farm and find a way to "unmagic" it before disaster strikes.
Series background & context
The Magical Mysteries series introduces readers to Natalie Ross and her younger brother Denny, ordinary kids whose lives are complicated by very real magic. Set in the contemporary world, these books mix sibling squabbles, school worries and time at a horse farm with spells that do not always behave as expected.
In My Aunt, the Monster, Denny is given a pouch of strange powder by an elderly woman. A careless experiment turns their bossy Aunt Matty, Natalie's cat and Denny's parakeet into a single, loudmouthed griffin. Hiding the creature on their uncle's horse farm is hard enough. Working out how to reverse the magic without letting their parents, or the neighbors, catch on is even harder.
White Magic finds Natalie dreaming big. She wants to ride on an Olympic equestrian team, but her small horse is clearly not built for that level of competition. When Denny offers to use magic to "fix" the problem, Natalie is tempted. The story that follows explores what happens when you change the nature of an animal for your own goals and what real talent and hard work should look like.
In Next Door Witch, the siblings take a job caring for a horse on a neighboring property and find an animal that is starved, scarred and strangely unsettling. Its owner has a reputation for being a witch, and her temper and tricks seem to back that up. Natalie and Denny must untangle the truth about the horse and its mistress, and decide how far they are willing to go to help.
Across the series, Stanton balances humor with genuine peril. Magic can be exhilarating, but it also has rules, costs and loopholes that the children learn the hard way. Family loyalty, personal responsibility and the ethics of using power, even for good reasons, sit just under the surface of the adventures.
Written for middle-grade readers, the books are fast-paced but thoughtful, with enough horse detail and everyday realism to ground the spells and monsters. Reading in order, starting with My Aunt, the Monster, lets you watch Natalie and Denny grow braver and wiser with each new magical disaster they have to clean up.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
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