Review of Tongues of Serpents, by Naomi Novik

Adventure, Alternate History, Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review 0

Tongues of Serpents

by Naomi Novik
read by Simon Vance

Tantor Audio, 2010. 10 hours on 8 CDs.

The library finally got this book about Temeraire on CD! They had it in e-audiobook form, but I don’t have a way to listen to those in my car. So I listened to one more book about Temeraire, the celestial dragon.

Naomi Novik’s books are like the Master and Commander books, only with dragons. It’s an alternate world where nations use dragons in their Aerial Corps, with a full complement of deckhands and one captain who bonds with the dragon when it hatches. The books take place during the Napoleonic wars. You really should read them in order.

In the latest installment, Temeraire and Laurence are in Australia. (Besides England, they’ve been to China, Central Asia, Africa, and Europe. So why not Australia?) The book starts with some political posturing, but gets more interesting when they take a crew of convicts into the interior, and a dragon egg gets stolen. They encounter all kinds of new dangers in their journey to get the egg back.

The plot isn’t terribly gripping, but I could happily listen to Simon Vance read a phone book, and this is much more interesting than the phone book. His British accent is a delight to listen to, and I can recognize the voices he uses from the previous audiobooks, even though it’s been awhile since I heard the last one. He’s consistent with a different voice for each character, so they are recognizable, even in the next book.

I shouldn’t say too much about this installment, because if you’ve listened to the other books, nothing I can say would keep you from reading on. Yes, read this series. Or much better yet, listen to this series. Napoleonic Wars with dragons! A reader with a fabulous British accent! A great way to while away a commute.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Son, by Lois Lowry

Fantasy, Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

Son

by Lois Lowry
read by Bernadette Dunne

Listening Library, 2012. 8 hours on 7 compact discs.

Son is “the conclusion to the Giver quartet.” I read The Giver and Gathering Blue many years ago, and read and reviewed Messenger in 2004. It’s possible I would have enjoyed this book more if I remembered what was in the predecessors.

The book starts out in the same community as The Giver. Claire is a birth mother, a Vessel. But something goes wrong when she is delivering the “Product.” The “discomfort” gets extreme (That detail made me laugh — doctors in our society also have the gall to call labor pains “discomfort”.), and Claire ends up with a scar and is given a new role to play at the Fish Hatchery.

But Claire found out her child’s number. A subsequent trip to the Nursery means she can innocently find out her son’s identity. She can get to know him, in the guise of helping the Caregivers. But when Jonas flees from the community and takes her son with him, that means Claire must leave, too.

I didn’t really remember details from The Giver or Gathering Blue. What I’ve described so far was Part One, and it had tiny little details I could quibble with, but mostly I was enjoying the story. Then, suddenly, at the end of Part Three, the book turns from a plausible Science Fiction title into pure Fantasy. I didn’t buy the story from there on out — the big obstacle felt completely artificial. It’s possible I wouldn’t have been so taken aback if I had read Gossamer, because it sounds like some of the roots of Claire’s encounter were laid in that book.

However, despite having many arguments with the story, the fact is, I was mesmerized. There was nothing flashy about the reader’s voice (no cute accents, just plain reading), but I couldn’t stop listening and eagerly looked forward to my morning and evening commute as long as I was listening to this book.

I may not buy the story, and it may not be the hard-hitting dystopian commentary on our society I expected from a sequel to The Giver — but Lois Lowry’s command of language had me mesmerized, all the same.

If you’ve never read The Giver, you should. It’s a modern classic. And then if you want more, I think the best approach would probably be to read all three of Lois Lowry’s books that follow. Some day, I plan to read all four, in order. I’m sure I will enjoy them. Lois Lowry knows how to spin a tale.

listeninglibrary.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Wednesdays in the Tower, by Jessica Day George

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

Wednesdays in the Tower

by Jessica Day George

Bloomsbury, New York, 2013. 229 pages.

I’m a huge fan of Tuesdays at the Castle, so when I saw a sequel was coming out, I didn’t wait for the library to get a copy, but ordered my own copy. And I used that purchase as an excuse to enjoy rereading Tuesdays at the Castle first. In a way, I’m sorry I did. Although I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Tuesdays again, there were some logical inconsistencies between the books that I might not have noticed if the first book weren’t fresh in my mind.

Let me say right from the beginning that the second book is not a complete story in itself. Not at all. The book ends with half the story not told. Tuesdays at the Castle was a complete and satisfying story that didn’t cry out for a sequel. Wednesdays in the Tower doesn’t need a sequel — it needs the other half of the story. So in a way, I feel like it’s not quite fair to review it when the story isn’t complete. But the book came out without the story complete, so I am going to go ahead.

Now, there are still wonderful things about this book. I love the family that lives in Glower Castle. Princess Celie’s a delight, and she still knows the castle better than anyone. In Wednesdays in the Tower, Celie discovers a tower that she’s never seen before (yes, it happens on a Wednesday), and in the tower is a large, orange, burning hot egg. When the egg hatches, Celie witnesses the birth of a griffin.

The castle doesn’t let anyone but Celie find out about the griffin, and makes it very clear she’s not to tell anyone, by slamming doors if she even thinks about telling her parents. So she has to try to raise a griffin on her own.

This is never explained at all. The castle does let two other people find out about it. Why those two? And later, further into the book, suddenly the castle lets everyone find out. Why then? It’s not made clear. Maybe later in the story it will be?

But a bigger inconsistency is in Castle Glower itself. In the first book, we had a portrait of a castle that changes shape, adding or taking away rooms, if it gets bored, usually on Tuesdays. These changes included making the rooms of the ambassador it didn’t like much smaller and more uncomfortable, and the rooms of the ambassador it did like much larger and nicer. That doesn’t seem to fit well with what we’re told about the castle in this book. Now we learn that the castle exists in two places and is bringing rooms from its other location. So how would it then change their shape? To me, it doesn’t quite fit.

And why is Lulath still here? I love Lulath. He’s a fun character. But didn’t he come for the king and queen’s funeral? Why is he still there? And why isn’t he getting any better at using the language if he’s been hanging around for months?

And what’s with the wizard? I can’t figure out — even by the end of the book — if he’s good or bad. And his motivation for suddenly telling everything but keeping back one thing (I’m trying to be vague here to not give anything away.) — well, it left me pretty confused.

However, a baby griffin? Totally fun. Celie and her family back? Delightful. Castle Glower showing Celie a griffin egg? That I can believe.

And will I want to read the next book? Absolutely. I have to find out how the story ends. And I admit I want to spend more time with Celie and her family and the griffin.

JessicaDayGeorge.com
bloomsbury.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own copy, purchased through Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Crown of Embers, by Rae Carson

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Crown of Embers

by Rae Carson

Greenwillow Books, 2012. 410 pages.

The Crown of Embers is the sequel to The Girl of Fire and Thorns, and yes, you should read the earlier book first.

This is definitely a continuation and not a completion of the story. The second volume ends with much more of a cliffhanger than the first.

Elisa, still the bearer of the Godstone, is now queen of her dead husband’s people, as well as being a war hero. But she harnessed her Godstone’s power in a one-time event, and is dismayed when Inviernos come after her again. This volume involves a quest to the source of power as well as trying to become a good queen and establishing herself among the political powers.

Now, I think I’m still in judging mode from the Cybils panel, because this time it was harder for me not to notice little things I didn’t like. I have a horrible bias against novels written in present tense (I know it’s not fair, but I can’t seem to stop disliking it), and the present tense of this novel did consistently annoy me. I thought that Elisa as narrator tends to tell us way too much about her emotions and feelings, and there were some definite internal logic problems with the world-building that I would have gone into in detail about if this book had been in my group.

But that’s enough! I did keep reading, and I did enjoy this book. The fact is, I do want to know what happens to Elisa. And the romance? Exquisite. I’ve always loved slow-burning romance and books that show friendship blossoming into love, and this book achieves that. As a bonus, we already saw Elisa in love in the last book, with a tragic ending. It’s rather refreshing to have the author of a romance not claiming that Elisa has “one true love,” and must be miserable without it.

So I wouldn’t give this to readers who love intricate world-building, but I will happily recommend it as wonderful slow-simmering romance. And I am going to be first in line to read the third volume.

raecarson.com
epicreads.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Doll Bones, by Holly Black

Adventure, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review 0

Doll Bones

by Holly Black

Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2013. 244 pages.
Starred Review

Wow! Holly Black has surpassed herself with Doll Bones. It’s a kids-going-on-an-adventure novel, a ghost story, a growing-up tale, a story of friendships changing, and a story of coming to terms with parental expectation. And it’s all carried out beautifully.

Zach and his friends Alice and Poppy have an incredibly detailed imaginative world going. In a episode that reminded me of the ship scene in Momo, Zach leads his action figure William the Blade on a pirate ship adventure, attacked by Poppy’s mermaids and assisted by Alice’s Lady Jaye.

But Zach is twelve years old, and it’s not only other kids who think he’s too old to play with action figures. When Zach comes home from basketball practice, his Dad has thrown all of them away, saying it’s time for Zach to grow up. Zach doesn’t want to tell the girls.

That anger curdled inside his belly and crawled up his throat until it felt like it might choke him. Until he was sure that there was no way he could ever tell anyone what had happened without all of his anger spilling out and engulfing everything.

And the only way not to tell anyone was to end the game.

Not surprisingly, the girls don’t take kindly to that. Poppy tries to entice Zach back into the game by taking the creepy doll her mother owns, the doll they call The Queen, out of its glass cabinet. But when she does so, that night she has a vivid dream.

“It wasn’t like a regular dream,” Poppy said, her fingers smoothing back the Queen’s curls and her voice changing, going soft and chill as the night air…. “It wasn’t like dreaming at all. She was sitting on the end of my bed. Her hair was blond, like the doll’s, but it was tangled and dirty. She was wearing a nightdress smeared with mud. She told me I had to bury her. She said she couldn’t rest until her bones were in her own grave, and if I didn’t help her, she would make me sorry.”…

“Her bones?” he finally echoed.

“Did you know that bone china has real bones in it?” Poppy said, tapping a porcelain cheek. “Her clay was made from human bones. Little-girl bones. That hair threaded through the scalp is the little girl’s hair. And the body of the doll is filled with her leftover ashes….

“Each night she told me a little more of her story.” Illuminated by the flashlight, Poppy’s face had become strange. “She’s not going to rest until we bury her. And she’s not going to let us rest either. She promised to make us miserable unless we help her.”

So the three kids set out. Zach and Alice aren’t sure Poppy’s not making it up, until more strange things happen. Their plan is to take a bus to the gravesite up the river in East Liverpool, Ohio. But a crazy man on the bus spooks them, and they get off the bus too soon, and then must escape the attention of officials.

I’ve said in other reviews that I don’t normally enjoy creepy stories. But this one is done beautifully. I should say that there’s a lot more scary dread than anything that actually happens to the kids. But I think it’s fair. The doll gets upset when they get sidetracked from their mission, but she has no reason to be upset as they near the goal.

Readers also might fault it for how nicely all the emotional threads tie up in the end. But I loved it. The different emotional threads are woven into the story with a delicate touch, and even though they tie up nicely, it never feels too good to be true.

This book is excellent on so many levels. The friendship between the kids changing on the cusp of adolescence feels real, with all the touchiness inherent in those changes. The quest is in the classic tradition of The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The kids aren’t well-prepared, and they argue along the way, but they follow their quest to a tremendously satisfying conclusion.

blackholly.com
KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/doll_bones.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Horten’s Incredible Illusions, by Lissa Evans

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mystery 0

Horten’s Incredible Illusions

Magic, Mystery & Another Very Strange Adventure

by Lissa Evans

Sterling Children’s Books, New York, 2012. Originally published in Great Britain in 2012 as Big Change for Stuart.

Horten’s Incredible Illusions is a follow-up to Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms, and you should definitely read the first book first. I can say with confidence that if you liked the first book, you will also enjoy the second.

In the second book, Stuart Horten has found his uncle’s magic tricks, but now he must figure out a puzzle that involves an adventure with each piece of magical equipment. The puzzle leads to his uncle’s will, which he needs to prove the tricks belong to him.

The puzzle format works well, and this is simply a fun adventure tale for kids. Here’s a sample from when Stuart and April first get to look over the tricks:

They looked at each other. “Once you start using magic, it’s very hard to stop,” quoted April, her voice breathy. “It’s another puzzle, isn’t it? Another adventure?”

Stuart closed his hand over the star, and felt the six prongs dig into his skin. His heart was suddenly thumping; he felt both excited and slightly frightened, and he knew from April’s expression that she felt the same. The hunt for Great-Uncle Tony’s workshop had been a wild and exciting chase, sprinkled with danger and magic, and now another quest was beckoning. But for what? What was the prize this time?

He felt his hand tingle, and he knew that the object he was holding was so full of magic that over fifty years it had bleached the paper it was wrapped in; he could feel its power.

sterlingpublishing.com/kids

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Golem and the Jinni

by Helene Wecker

Harper, 2013. 486 pages.
Starred Review

I had brought this book back to the library, figuring I’d never get around to reading it, so I should give other people a chance. I made the mistake of looking inside to get the flavor of it — and was instantly hooked. I brought it back home and bypassed all of my plans and made it the next novel I read.

Here’s the first paragraph:

The Golem’s life began in the hold of a steamship. The year was 1899; the ship was the Baltika, crossing from Danzig to New York. The Golem’s master, a man named Otto Rotfeld, had smuggled her aboard in a crate and hidden her among the luggage.

The beginning talks about how Rotfeld decided he wanted a wife and turned to Schaalman, a disgraced rabbi who dabbled in the Kabbalistic arts. Here’s a warning Schaalman gives to Rotfeld:

“The results may not be as precise as you might wish. One can only do so much with clay.” Then his face darkened. “But remember this. A creature can only be altered so far from its basic nature. She’ll still be a golem. She’ll have the strength of a dozen men. She’ll protect you without thinking, and she’ll harm others to do it. No golem has ever existed that did not eventually run amok. You must be prepared to destroy her.”

But Rotfeld dies during the passage to America, shortly after waking the Golem. With no master, she hears the desires and wishes of everyone around her. Terribly distracted in New York City, she meets a rabbi who knows what she is and helps her pass for human.

Nearby, in the neighborhood of Lower Manhattan called Little Syria, a tinsmith is working to repair an old flask and releases a jinni. The Jinni doesn’t remember the last several hundred years. Last he knew, he was in the Syrian desert, paying more attention to humans than other jinn said was good for him.

The Jinni, too, must pass for human in New York City. He works for the tinsmith who released him. Made of fire, he can heat and mold metal with his bare hands. But he’s not willing to merely stay in the shop.

Both the Golem and the Jinni become restless, since, after all, they don’t have to spend their nights sleeping like the humans around them. They both can instantly see that the other is not the human they are pretending to be.

Even though it’s a very different story, this book reminded me of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, with a world so much like ours, but with these magical deviations. As in that book, the characters are deeply explored and all the implications of the world built are lived out.

The Golem lives among Jews and the Jinni among Syrians, but they find each other and change each other’s lives and outlook. Eventually, they discover a surprising connection between them, a connection that could mean their destruction.

This book captivated me all the way along. It explores what it means to be human, as we look at these two creatures passing as human: one made of clay, and one made of fire.

harpercollins.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of The Cup and the Crown, by Diane Stanley

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Cup and the Crown

by Diane Stanley

Harper, 2012. 344 pages.
Starred Review

Molly’s back! The Molly who saved the kingdom in The Silver Bowl with the help of her strange powers, seeing visions in a silver bowl, has now been made a Lady. But the king has a commission for her. She is to go find a Loving Cup, made by her grandfather, with the power to bind two people together. He needs it for an important alliance. And since Molly has been having nightly visions about such a cup, she agrees to go.

In this volume, we find out much more about the source of Molly’s magic and her family history. I think you could read it without having read the first book, but I almost want to say you shouldn’t read it without reading whatever’s coming next. I’ll simply say about the ending that it annoyed me. I’m hoping Diane Stanley can write a third book that will reconcile me to those events.

But right up until the annoying ending (and that may be a personal quirk that I didn’t like it), I thoroughly enjoyed this journey. I was a little disappointed to discover Molly has noble blood — it was refreshing to have a character in a medieval fantasy who was a commoner — but I don’t think that’s a flaw. And it did emphasize her strong magical gift.

I like the slowly blooming romance between Molly and Tobias, and what they were willing to do for each other. Yet we still have a certain amount of doubt that they will really end up together (because of that annoying ending. I’ll say no more).

What started with a very unusual magical world — with magical visions in a silver bowl — has become unusual in other ways, including a secret kingdom where magic is revered. Only can Molly and Tobias ever get out again?

dianestanley.com
harpercollinschildrens.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of A Corner of White, by Jaclyn Moriarty

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Corner of White

The Colors of Madeleine, Book One

by Jaclyn Moriarty

Arthur A. Levine Books (Scholastic), 2013. 373 pages.
Starred Review
2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award Winner for Fiction

A Corner of White doesn’t fit neatly into categories. Yes, it’s fantasy, because half of the story is set in a fantasy world. But the other half is set in modern-day Cambridge. In both worlds, we follow a teen with some big concerns. The two teens happen upon a crack between worlds — a crack just big enough to send letters through.

Madeleine, in Cambridge, just turned fourteen. She used to be rich, living a jet-setting lifestyle. But when she ran away the last time (She made a habit of that.), her mother came, too. Now they live in an attic in historic Cambridge, and her mother mends clothing to get them by.

Elliot lives in the Kingdom of Cello. He’s fifteen, and his father has been missing for months. Elliot’s theory is that the same attacking Purple that killed his uncle Jon carried off his father along with the missing physics teacher, Mischka Taylor. He wants to find the Purple’s lair and locate his father.

But events conspire to keep him at home this time.

I can’t begin to summarize all that goes on in this book. Madeleine is being homeschooled in a cooperative along with Jack and Belle. They’re studying great people who lived at Cambridge before them. Jack and Belle aren’t sure what to make of her stories of when she was rich. She’s not sure what to make of them, with Jack obsessed with horoscopes and Belle reading people’s auras. But she never reads Madeleine’s. Madeleine’s mother is acting strangely, and when Madeleine writes to her father, hoping he will come get them, she doesn’t get an answer in a hurry.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Cello has problems besides the disappearance of Elliot’s father. Elliot lives in the Farms, and crops have been failing. But when the Butterfly Child shows up, everybody says she will help. So why is she sleeping all the time? Then there are the touring Princess Sisters, the sheriff’s deputy who’s so good at finding missing persons, and the couple from Olde Quainte who are renting his father’s shop, with their daughter who never speaks.

During all of this, Madeleine and Elliot exchange letters. Of course, Madeleine thinks he’s making it all up. The Colour Attacks sound like nonsense. She thinks he’s a budding writer who’s invented a fantasy kingdom. But along the way, they both give each other good advice.

For at least half of the book, I was distracted by how completely impossible the Kingdom of Cello’s existence is. They have generally random seasons, lasting a few hours to a few weeks. I’m with Madeleine in thinking the Colour Attacks don’t make a whole lot of sense. In fact, I had to laugh at the Acknowledgments at the end, where the author says, “Adam Gatenby talked to me about farming life and Alistair Baillie talked about physics, and I am thankful to them both. (Here I should note that Adam considers farming in shifting seasons to be impossible, and that Alistair has similar doubts about colors taking on corporeal form.)” I want to add that I don’t understand how the seasons could shift. Ours are caused by the earth’s revolution around the sun. It’s clear they have a sun. How could the seasons shift so randomly?

However, by the end of the book, I was finally won over. I like the story and the characters so much, I was willing to forgive. It took longer than most fantasy tales, but in the end, okay, with small reservations. And I loved the plot twist at the end. It does lead into the rest of the series, but the story in this book still came to a satisfying conclusion.

And I love these characters. They’re not perfect. They’re trying to figure out life, each with their own obstacles to overcome. The plot was well-worked out. That’s what I don’t want to say too much about, for fear of giving something away. But it says a lot that I’m willing to forgive the unlikeliness of the alternate world in order to spend time with these people. And I very much want to know what happens next.

thisisteen.com/books
arthuralevinebooks.com
scholastic.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/corner_of_white.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

Please use the comments if you’ve read the book and want to discuss spoilers!

Review of Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms, by Lissa Evans

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mystery 0

Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms

Magic, Mystery & a Very Strange Adventure

by Lissa Evans

Sterling Children’s Books, 2012. 270 pages.

Here’s a truly fun story with a magical twist on being the new kid in town. Stuart Horten — S. Horten — Always called “Shorten” — is very short. His parents are extremely clever, but not very sensible, and they move to a new town right at the start of the summer, so Stuart doesn’t have any chance to make new friends. They move to Beeton, the town where Stuart’s father grew up, and in town are the ruins of the old factory where Stuart’s great-uncle Tony manufactured magic tricks — before he disappeared.

Stuart turns up a puzzle from Great-Uncle Tony that leads to a mystery that leads him all over town. Tony was a fine magician, and Stuart can’t help but wonder what really happened when he disappeared.

The big strength of this book is the quirky characters: Stuart’s father, who always uses big words; the identical triplet girls next door who see themselves as investigative journalists; and the people in the town whom Stuart meets along the way. The puzzle is engaging and keeps you going.

Now, I wasn’t quite believing in the ending, or that the puzzle would have survived the passage of years as well as it did. But I think I’m probably a more difficult audience on that front than most kids, and the story-telling itself was outstanding. The book reminded me of my beloved Edward Eager books — ordinary kids spending a summer tinged with magic.

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