With everyone else sick in bed with a cold on Christmas Eve, it is up to Madeline to run the school, and she finds a remarkable helper in a rug-selling magician.

Illustrations and simple text relate how Zip, the unlucky alien magician, zaps Bip so they can play some ball, but things do not go according to plan when Bip grows so big that he flies away like a giant balloon. Includes note to parents, introduction to the books vocabulary, and reading comprehension questions.

A magician gives a spectacular final performance after deciding to retire.

A faulty magician creates quite an uproar at a party when he turns the birthday girl into a rock and the guests into different animals.