books I don't remember?

Question

ok I'm looking for 2 series of books but can't remember the titles. In the first one, there's a girl & her brother & she can do land magic & her bro can do stuff in the water, like talk to the animals & stuff. I'm pretty sure I remember reading a couple sequels, but I do remember them going to some other dimension that looked like their own but there were these shiny talking walking blue balls that named themselves, they had to battle a tree to close the portal, on top of a hospital there was some sort of evil helicopter, when they went into an office building(this whole dimension looked like a trash-hole version of where they live) there was some ugly secretary & monster ceo guy but they had to get a paper from his office & the girl had to face some book eating monster in an abandoned train terminal. I faintly remember the boy in another book doing something w/ dolphins to help clean up the sewage that was wrecking the harbour by their city, & them having to go help a hurt dolphin....

...underwater. I think they could morph or talk in any language or something.
The second series there were 4 kids that could work w/ the elements. A wizard brought them all to a house to learn & study together, I know there was a girl who could manipulate the weather & a boy who was really into blacksmithing & in one of the books they go on a quest with the wizard & others(I remember something about a saffron field?) There were 4 books, one for each of them, & I know it was something like "......'s" story or "......'s tale" type thing for each. There's also a book about a girl who goes back to her grandma's time & lives her grandma's life once in a while & it leads her to find a painting room that's been boarded up in her house for a really long time.I can't remember the titles. Please, if anyone can help, please do! Thanx

Answer 1

The first series sounds like "So you want to be a wizard" series by Diane Duane. There are about 6 of them (like "A Wizard Abroad," "the Wizard's Dilemma," "A Wizard Alone" -) that kind of thing. The girl and the boy are actually partners (not brother and sister) although the girl's sister does become a wizard in the later books. I remember the bouncy blue balls (I think from the first book - like these other-dimensional wizards) and there is one where the main plot is helping a wizard who is actually a whale or maybe a dolphin (it's not all human wizards) to clean up the sewage in the city.

I don't know the second series.
I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Your second series was one of my favorites when I was younger. They are by Tamora Pierce and are the Circle of magic series. She has written several sequels recently but I haven't read those. And you are thinking of the children's names for the book titles. The first one is Sandry's Book. You also have some of the facts about the books a bit muddled.