Knight’s Castle

Posted by Rebekah
Category Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
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Our rating: ****

When Roger and his sister Ann learn that they must stay with their cousins Jack and Eliza while Roger and Ann’s father has an operation, they are less than thrilled. Roger packs up all his toy soldiers in preparation for the stay with his bossy cousins Eliza and Jack, who loves photography. On the train ride, one of Roger’s knights comes to life for a little while during the night. Roger wants the knight to cure his father, but the knight says that wishes must be earned. Once Roger and Ann are at their cousins’s house, a series of three magical adventures keep them busy with characters from Ivanhoe, Robin Hood, and whatever else may come along.

This is a fun book. The whole concept behind the magic adventures and the way it works is interesting. A funny take on modern meets medieval.

Half Magic

Posted by Ruth
Category Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fantasy, Fiction, Review
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Our rating: ****½

Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha are four ordinary children. They love reading books about magic, but can’t help wishing they could find some magic somehow. Then, when Jane finds an old, dropped coin on the sidewalk, everything changes. It’s a magic coin that grants wishes. Well, almost. It will grant half of your wish. This may sound simple to thwart, but it’s not as easy as it seems. After all, if you have a cat that can half talk, how many times do you have to wish it to not talk before it’s back to normal?

This is a very funny book. The children go from one adventure to another, in a style very similar to E. Nesbit. Most of their wishes result in a minor disaster of some sort or another, and they have to figure out how to get everything back to normal. In the end though, everything is nicely resolved. I definitely recommend Half Magic.

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