The Real Boy

The Real Boy (2013), a fantasy novel by American author Anne Ursu, follows an orphaned boy named Oscar who becomes an assistant to an important magician, Master Caleb. During his studies, he unexpectedly makes a shocking discovery about his own origin, which is tied to the fate of his home on the outskirts of a place simply known as the City. The novel’s title and plot allude to the fairy tale of Pinocchio, a wooden boy who yearned to be “real.” It considers similar themes of alienation and identity, but in the context of Oscar’s teenage social awkwardness and coming-of-age. The novel was highly praised in the children’s literature world and was longlisted for a National Book Award.

At the beginning of the novel, Oscar, an 11-year-old orphan who has only faint memories of his parents, struggles to fit in. Oscar is left with no other choice but to seek employment to better his life. He approaches Master Caleb, one of the only magicians remaining near the City, to ask to become his assistant. Master Caleb agrees to employ him to do odd tasks around his shop, leaving more time for himself and his apprentice, Wolf, to focus on their magic. Oscar happily takes the job, moving into the cellar beneath Master Caleb’s shop.

For the first weeks, Oscar’s job seems ordinary enough, and he settles into a comfortable, if hermetic, routine, descending into the cellar whenever customers arrive. Things change when Master Caleb is summoned abroad for business. He leaves Oscar and Wolf to take care of the shop in his absence. Without Master Caleb watching over them, Wolf picks on Oscar, forcing him to run the shop on his own while Wolf leaves on other business with Bonnie, the apprentice to another magician, Master Robin. Around this time, sinister forces begin to appear in the City and its surroundings. Wolf and Bonnie are both killed by a monster in the woods. Oscar continues to run the shop until Master Caleb comes back from abroad. He returns only briefly, leaving again with almost no explanation.



During one of the healer Madame Mariel’s visits to the shop, Oscar befriends her apprentice, Callie. Callie stands up for Oscar when several customers are short with him. Later, Callie returns alone, mentioning that Madame Mariel has also left the continent, assigning her to her everyday tasks. She gives Oscar some tips for communicating better with customers. She then proposes that they help each other with their jobs: she can teach Oscar how to interact with people, and Oscar can help her diagnose patients and recommend medicines, while their masters are both away.

Callie’s tasks bring her and Oscar to the homes of various patients; these visits help Oscar get over his fear of traveling, and are his first experiences in the City. Oscar takes Callie to his master’s secret herb garden to teach her about which botanical ingredients are used to heal different diseases. When they arrive, they are shocked to see that the garden, including its precious greenhouse, has been destroyed, seemingly by a large creature. When Oscar returns to the store, he finds that someone has been felling the wizard trees that border the City. The trees were once a group of wizards, who sacrificed themselves to form a magical barrier around the City to protect it from plague.

Finally, Caleb returns to the store. Seeing that Oscar has barely sold any wares, he curses at him and sends him to the cellar. That evening, while Oscar is cleaning the store, a magical creature composed of plants from the forest assails the shop, knocking down a whole wall and consuming all of the magical goods inside. Caleb rushes upstairs and protects Oscar, buying time for his escape. Oscar narrowly survives, but Caleb is killed. Without his master, Oscar is again an orphan. Callie begins to receive more and more customers, most of them children from the City whose symptoms seem strangely connected. Eventually, she realizes that their problems are related to the destruction of the wizard trees, which has weakened the City’s protective barrier. Oscar searches through the remains of Caleb’s workshop for a way to help Callie and the children. He finds a hidden storage unit that contains an incomplete wooden boy. Oscar starts to believe that he, too, was once a wooden child and that is why he has never been able to fit in.



Oscar brings the wooden boy to Callie, explaining his revelation. She replies that it doesn’t matter to her whether he was originally a wooden boy: in her mind, he is her friend Oscar. They soon realize that all of the children in the City are wooden children brought to life and that their magic is failing due to the onslaught of the evil creatures. Callie and Oscar understand that because magic is also what is causing the children their illnesses, the children can only be saved by ending all magic in the City. They arrange a spell to accomplish this, causing the wizard trees to turn into regular trees and vanquishing the evil creature that has been rampaging through it. As a result, the wooden children are freed of their ailments, finally becoming real.