Sonderbooks Book Review of Falcon and the Charles Street Witch

*Falcon and the Charles Street Witch

by Luli Gray

Reviewed May 7, 2002.
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 138 pages.

This book is a sequel to Falcon’s Egg, which I’m sure I have lying around my house somewhere. In Falcon’s Egg, a girl named Falcon finds and hatches a dragon egg. Of course she must keep the egg a secret and finally come to grips with setting her dragon, named Egg, free. I haven’t read it, but it sounds like a fun story with an understandable plot.

Falcon and the Charles Street Witch, is a nice story, but the plot rambles off in strange directions. At the start, Falcon, her little brother Toody, and a rude man fall out of their plane. (I’m not sure I really want my son to read this, in case he would think that falling out of a plane is so easy to do.) Falcon is fine, because she’s blown to New York on dragon’s breath, where she meets the Charles Street Witch. Toody, however, is nowhere to be found.

The witch is able to find Toody quite easily, and sends Falcon to get him on dragon back. However, their trip back home is complicated by a time rift, an alternate universe, and then a military squadron and a talk show host who discover Egg. All of these complications seem to pop out of nowhere.

So, this isn’t one of those children’s books that adults will find equally delightful. However, if you know a child who loves books with magic and dragons, they’ll find some harmless fun in this one.

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

*Falcon and the Charles Street Witch

by Luli Gray