''Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin'' is a children's book created and published by The Templar Company plc in the UK, and published by

Candlewick Press Candlewick Press, established in 1992 and located in Somerville, Massachusetts, is part of the Walker Books group. The logo depicting a bear carrying a candle is based on Walker Books's original logo. Sebastian Walker launched Walker Books from ...

in America in 2005. The book is marketed as having been written by

Merlin Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...

, and is the third book in the ' Ology series. ''Wizardology'' is filled with useful spells and magical information. There are numerous pockets, flaps, secret codes, and scavenger hunts hidden throughout the book. The publisher was

Dugald Steer Dugald A. Steer B.A. (Brist), S.A.S.D. (born 1965) is an English children's writer. Biography Early life and education Dugald Steer was born in 1965 and grew up in Surrey. He completed a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English literature and ...

, while the book was designed by Nghiem Ta, and features the artwork of Helen Ward,

Tomislav Tomic Tomislav (, ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, that is widespread amongst the South Slavs. The meaning of the name ''Tomislav'' is thought to have derived from the Old Slavonic verb "'' tomiti''" or "'' tomit" meaning to "''languish ...

, John Howe, and

Anne Yvonne Gilbert Anne Yvonne Gilbert (born 1950/1951) is a British artist and book illustrator. Her cover design of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 1983 single "Relax" has been described as "one of the most famous record sleeves of all time". While much of her caree ...

Plot

The book is written by nineteenth century author, wizardologist Merlin purporting to have written the material in ink (needs clarification on what it was actually written in).

*Chapter I: The Work of a Wizard *Chapter II: A Wizard's Map of the World *Chapter III: The Master Wizard's Workshop *Chapter IV: A Wizard's Robes & Tools *Chapter V: Spellcraft *Chapter VI: A Wizard's Loyal Familiars *Chapter VII: A Wizard's Menagerie of Magical Beasts *Chapter VIII: Magical Flight & Flying Carpets *Chapter IX: Potions, Healing & Magical Transformations *Chapter X: Amulets, Talismans & Magical Items *Chapter XI: Divination & Crystal Gazing *Chapter XII: Alchemy, Astronomy & the New Sciences *Chapter XIII: Famous Wizards of History *Conclusion, or The Mystery of Wizardology Revealed and Concealed

Awards and honors

*2006:

shortlisted A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

for

British Children's Book of the Year The National Book Awards Children's Book of the Year Award is a British literary award, given annually to works of children's literature as part of the Galaxy National Book Awards. It was established in 1996, replacing the British Illustrated ...

In other media

Video games

In October 2007,

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

announced a licensing agreement to create

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

and

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

based on ''Wizardology'', as well as ''

Dragonology ''Dragonology'' is a is a young adult book series about dragons, written in a non-fictional style. The series contains information on dragons, including information about how to befriend and protect them as well as an alphabet of the dragon langu ...

'' and ''

Pirateology ''Pirateology: A Pirate Hunter's Companion (2006)'' is the fourth book in the Ologies series, created and published by The Templar Publishing Company in the UK, and published by Candlewick Press in North America. This book is composed of what ...

''. Nik Nak was to develop the Wii titles.

Film adaptation

On January 31, 2018,

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

announced they were in the process of developing a film franchise centred around all 13 ''Ology'' books, by setting up a writers room currently consisting of

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family,Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

, Lindsey Beer,

Joe Robert Cole Joe Robert Cole (born January 1, 1980) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his Emmy Award-nominated and Writers Guild of America Award-winning work on the first season of the true crime anthology television series ''Ameri ...

Nicole Perlman Nicole Perlman (born December 10, 1981) is an American screenwriter, best known for co-writing the Marvel Cinematic Universe film ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014), and the story for Marvel's '' Captain Marvel'' (2019), and for ''Pokémon Detecti ...

and

Christina Hodson Christina Hodson is a British screenwriter, known for ''Bumblebee'' (2018) and ''Birds of Prey'' (2020). Her 2016 film '' Shut In'' appeared on the 2012 Black List, an annual list of Hollywood's best-liked unproduced screenplays, as have two ...

. The vision for the franchise is the hope that each of the writers will embrace the books by working with visual artists to create treatments which will eventually evolve into seven movie scripts with interconnected stories. Paramount also announced that

Akiva Goldsman Akiva J. Goldsman (born July 7, 1962) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making motion pictures and adaptations of popular novels. Goldsman's filmography as a screenwriter includes ''The Client''; ''Batman Forever'' and its sequel '' Ba ...

will act as overseer and producer of the franchise.

References

External links

Official website of the ''Ology'' seriesAnne Yvonne Gilbert, Illustrator
2005 children's books Books by Dugald Steer Candlewick Press books Children's fiction books Works based on Merlin Books illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert Books illustrated by Helen Ward Books illustrated by Nghiem Ta British children's books {{fantasy-book-stub