The Magic Maze Trilogy By Samuel Warren Joseph & Phil Proctor – The Children’s Book Review

October 24, 2025 · by sybrinapublishing

ABOUT THE BOOK

Written by Samuel Warren Joseph & Phil Proctor

Ages: 9-12 | 244 Pages

Publisher: Sam/Phil Books (2025) | ISBN: 979-8-9927464-6-4

Publisher’s Book Summary: The Magic Maze Trilogy includes three books: Tyler and Tess in the Magic Maze; Madness in the Magic Maze; and Escape from the Magic Maze. It is about eleven-year old fraternal twins, Tyler and Tess Porter, who accidentally get sucked up into the bizarre world of the Magic Maze. Geared to appeal to children from seven to thirteen and older fantasy fans as well, the story propels the twins into an “Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz” world. In order to return home, they must get through twelve separate parts of the maze. Each is its own world with strange rules, riddles and puzzles that the twins must solve using their wits, knowledge and athletic prowess. Tyler and Tess learn how much they mean to each other as they evade the evil QUEEN ZEBRA and her ZENTAURIAN GUARD of two-faced POLINERDS, and a duplicitous wizard, SIMON PERCIVAL. They form alliances with the rebel TRIDGETS (tiny trolls with Mohawk hairdos) led by the feisty BELKIN, and an assortment of other bizarre and funny characters. At the end, they must track down and put back together three parts of a MAGIC AMULET before they can be finally transported home, safe and sound.

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When Two Veteran Writers Tell One Story….
Magic Can Happen

The creation of the
Magic Maze Trilogy

Samuel Warren Joseph

www.MagicMaze.com

THE MAGIC MAZE TRILOGY includes three books: Tyler and Tess in the Magic Maze; Madness in the Magic Maze; and Escape from the Magic Maze. It is about eleven-year old fraternal twins, TYLER and TESS PORTER, who are accidentally sucked up into the bizarre world of the Magic Maze. Geared to appeal to children from seven to thirteen and older fantasy fans as well, the story propels the twins into an “Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz” world. In order to return home, they must get through twelve separate parts of the maze. Each is its own world with strange rules, riddles and puzzles that the twins must solve using their wits, knowledge and athletic prowess.

Tyler and Tess learn how much they mean to each other as they evade the evil QUEEN ZEBRA and her ZENTAURIAN GUARD of two-faced POLINERDS, and a duplicitous wizard, SIMON PERCIVAL. They form alliances with the rebel TRIDGETS (tiny trolls with Mohawk hairdos) led by the feisty BELKIN, and an assortment of other bizarre and funny characters. At the end, they must track down and put back together three parts of a MAGIC AMULET before they can be finally transported home, safe and sound.

I think that it is true that most writers never truly write completely alone. A novelist or non-fiction author gets feedback from friends, family and other writers and finally his or her editor. Screenwriters get the same kind of feedback and, if they are lucky enough, they get notes from the producers and director of their film.

Playwrights like myself are members of a group like the Playwrights Development Unit of the Actors’ Studio where we have staged readings of early drafts of our plays. There, we can get a sense of whether the dialogue is actor friendly and if the story works. Poets also have their own writer groups. No matter what form one writes in, you need feedback and input.

When more than one writer works together on a single project, the result can often be wonderfully creative and successful. I usually write alone but have had a number of successful collaborations over the years, including with this trilogy.

When I do partner with someone, I look for two things: can that person bring a unique perspective to the project in terms of imagination and craft…and do I like working with that person? Can we disagree without being disagreeable? Is he or she fun to be with? For the most part, this has been true of most of the people I have worked with, never more so than with Phil Proctor.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Phil is an extraordinarily brilliant and talented man. For starters, he speaks seven languages fluently. Within the world of comedy, he is widely admired as a founding member of the thrice-Grammy-nominated FiresignTheatre (Google them) whose archiveswere purchased by the Library of Congress. He’s appeared on and-off Broadway, toured the USSR with the Yale Russian Chorus,and also toured the US and Canada with the L.A. Guitar Quartet as DonQuixote.

His voice credits include memorable characters in AcademyAward-winning films for Pixar and Disney, the Drunken FrenchMonkey in Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Vidic in Assassin’s Creed, Simon Staggin Batman: Arkham Knight, and Howard in the multi-EmmywinningRugrats, which has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

And as an actor, Phil co-starred in a feature film I wrote and directed, Window of Opportunity and even once co-starred in a film with Jack Nicholson!

Phil and I also wrote God Help Us! It is a political comedy stage play that starred the late Ed Asner and was performed in over 30 cities. (I also co-wrote Ed’s autobiography.)Phil and I have also written another stage play, a comedy-farce entitled Sherlock Shakespeare.

I originally conceived of the Magic Maze as a website that was to include stories and games that were also educational, which I think could still happen. I started writing the beginning of the book and I wanted the story to focus on a brother and sister who also liked to bicker but were very bonded. (I am very close to my sister who is less than two years younger than I am. We have always been there for each other, but would occasionally argue.) I wrote the first chapter before I asked Phil to work with me on the project. At the time, he was co-starring in my stage play, Window of Opportunity, which was produced in Los Angeles. (As I mentioned earlier, we later turned the play into a feature film.)

I have taught in inner-city schools and for the last 25 years been a community college English professor. I have also written for kids including animated shows like Duck Tales, Batman, Dennis the Menace, and Beast Wars. So, creating a fantasy adventure tale for young readers that also snuck in education seemed like a great idea to me. Phil liked it too.

We first outlined the book describing what would happen in each chapter with a focus on how the twins would master that part of the Maze. We have some sort of puzzle or educational angle to each chapter. We then divided up the chapters and wrote them alone. Later, we literally sat in front of the computer editing the chapters together.

Basically, if one of us came up for an idea for a chapter, that person would write it. The focus was on the adventure and the fantasy and most of all, the relationship between Tyler and Tess. The educational aspect was essentially subversive.

The young readers will hopefully be hooked on the story and an educator could use the various puzzles or situations as a teaching moment. (We have lesson plans on our website.) For instance, Tyler and Tess win a talent contest by creating a homonym rap rhyme. In the “Fractured Forest”, Tess figures out that all the various trees are grouped in prime numbers, which shows them the way out. Phil was great at coming up with these kind of scenarios.

Originally, this was written as one book. I sent it to a wonderful woman, Ann Rhines, who was my 4^th grade teacher and she loved them. She suggested that it was a bit long and that we create a trilogy so that students would get a sense of accomplishment after reading each one of the books. She was also on the local school board and got a reading teacher to use it for her class.

We spoke to the students via Zoom and they loved the books. This is something Phil and I would be willing to do for other educators who use the books in their classes.

Our goal is to see kids realize how important working together with loved ones and friends is to survive in this world. We have seen that young readers are engaged and entertained by all the adventures and the quirky crazy characters in the books – and also the clever and smart ways Tyler and Tess solve each part of the Maze. Our hope is that the kids have as much fun reading the books as we did in creating them.

I know that The Magic Maze Trilogyis more imaginative and exciting because I asked Phil to work with me on it. That is what makes for the best collaboration, when essentially two minds are better than one. Phil is a great partner and friend, and I have been blessed to have him as both.ABOUT THE AUTHORS

About Samuel Warren Joseph

Samuel Warren Joseph’s credits include the movie Off Your Rocker, a comedy-drama about a revolution in an old folks’ home starring Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Dorothy Malone, and Lou Jacobi.

He has written animation episodes for such shows as Duck Tales, Dennis the Menace, Batman and Beast Wars.

Sam’s stage play, Window of Opportunity, a suspenseful dark comedy about corporate corruption, premiered at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles in the spring of 2006 to rave reviews. It has been turned into a feature film, which he wrote and directed, and was released in 2015. The film was produced and co-scored by John Densmore, the drummer of The Doors.

Sam wrote the book and co-wrote the songs for the stage musical Campaign, which premiered in October 2010 to excellent reviews.

His couple’s comedy, Two Times Two, also had its world premiere in 2010 in New Orleans to great reviews.

In 2016, his musical, Psychosexual: A Love Story, for which he wrote the book and lyrics, premiered at the Met Theatre in Los Angeles. The same year, his play, Moral Imperative, had its world premiere at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills.

With Phil Proctor, Sam co-wrote God Help Us!… a political comedy that toured the United States starring the late Ed Asner. Sam also co-wrote Ed’s autobiography, Son of a Junkman.

With Phil Proctor, Sam also co-wrote The Magic Maze Trilogy.

Sam has also been a special education teacher in inner city Los Angeles and currently is a community college Assistant Professor of English.

About Phil Proctor

Phil Proctor was born of Amish/Irish ancestry in Goshen, Indiana, and is a founding member of the thrice-Grammy-nominated Firesign Theatre (one of the “Thirty Greatest Acts of All Time”), whose archives were purchased by the Library of Congress. He’s appeared on and off-Broadway, toured the USSR with the Yale Russian Chorus, and also toured the US and Canada with the L.A. Guitar Quartet as Don Quixote.

He has appeared in scores of commercials, audiobooks, video games, radio and TV shows, and films, including Window of Opportunity, written and directed by his partner, Samuel Joseph. Phil received Theatre World, LA Weekly, LA Free Press and Drama Critics’ awards over his long career.

His voice credits include memorable characters in Academy Award-winning films for Pixar and Disney, the Drunken French Monkey in Dr. Dolittle, Dr. Vidic in Assassin’s Creed, Simon Stagg in Batman: Arkham Knight, and Howard in the multi-Emmy winning Rugrats, which has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He recently appeared in the world premiere of Dan Castellaneta’s For Piano and Harpo at the Gary Marshall Theatre, is a 20-year member of The Antaeus Theater company, and has written several new books, including his autobiography, Where’s My Fortune Cookie? co-authored by Brad Schreiber. With Samuel Joseph, he co-wrote a political comedy, God Help Us!, which toured the country starring the late Ed Asner to rave reviews.

To learn more about Phil, visit PlanetProctor.com.

To learn more about the series, visit MagicMaze.com.

Notice: This post is sponsored by Samuel Warren Joseph & Phil Proctor. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal views.