Fantasy Literature for Children ages 9-12.
As the sequel to Angie Sage’s first novel Magyk, a pre-teen wizarding fantasy heavily influenced by the HARRY POTTER series, Flyte picks up a year after the events of the first story, in which the magical Heap family discovered several amazing secrets about their past. Namely, that their adopted daughter Jenna was in fact a princess and that a young nameless boy they picked up in their adventures was their long-lost son Septimus,
July 7th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Angie Sage | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Magician’s Nephew was the sixth book that C.S. Lewis wrote in the Chronicles of Narnia, although chronologically it is placed first in the series, as a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This leads to many debates on when and where it is supposed to be read — but really, it doesn’t make much of a difference considering that all seven of the books are complete stories within themselves. However,
June 29th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | C.S. Lewis | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife is the second in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, beginning with The Golden Compass and ending with The Amber Spyglass. It is an amazing piece of literature; often more suited for adult readers than for the children/young adults that it’s geared toward, and with a message that — though controversial — is immensely thought provoking and worth pondering. Strangely enough, this second book is actually my favourite installment in the series;
June 26th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Philip Pullman | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane
So You Want to be a Wizardcame along well before the current trend of young fantasy so one shouldn’t dismiss it as “yet another Harry Potter follower.” Wizard centers on 13-yr-old Nita, a picked-upon young teen, and 12-yr-old Kit, another lonely young teen. Nita, taking refuge from bullies in the local library, stumbles across the reference book providing the title of the novel and into the world of wizardry. Shortly afterward, she meets up with Kit, who himself has just become a wizard.
June 19th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Diane Duane | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
In the sea of young adult fiction out there, Gregor the Overlander makes for one of the more pleasant anchorages. The book starts off quickly with Gregor and his two-year-old sister “Boots” falling through a gateway into the Underworld, a sprawling underground land populated by giant talking cockroaches, rats, bats, and spiders, along with several thousand pale humans descended from a 17th century “overlander” who led his small group into the Underworld then sealed the entrances. This descendant left a string of prophecies,
June 14th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Suzanne Collins | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Stormchaser is the second book of the Edge series and it is a vast improvement over book one — Beyond the Deepwoods. The book picks up a few years after Twig’s adventures in Beyond the Deepwoods. He is now sailing aboard the skyship of his recently-discovered sky-pirate father and has exchanged the monster-horrors of the Deepwoods with the more human horrors of city-life, pollution, and corruption (though monsters still make the occasional appearance).
June 12th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Paul Stewart | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
Reading this book was a strange experience for me, as even though I had never read it before in my life, it evoked a strange sense of familiarity that only the very best books, movies and music are able to achieve. Usually these are reserved for the ones that are experienced in childhood and carried through into adulthood, but every now and then one arrives that touch one on so deep a level that one feels they’ve always known them. The Children of Green Knowe is one such book.
June 10th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Lucy M. Boston | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dr. Illuminatus by Martin Booth
Doctor Illuminatus is the first of what promises to be three books, and it deserves two and a half stars, putting it exactly midpoint between good and just fair. Though it has an interesting premise and is full of fascinating facts and ideas, it often falls short on several accounts.
Pip and Tim are two twins that have just moved into an old, mysterious house called Rawne Barton: your standard beginning for a fantasy story of this nature. Before long, the siblings have uncovered a strange boy hidden in the walls of the house named Sebastian who claims to be the son of a medieval alchemist.
June 10th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Martin Booth | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo
Any book nowadays that has its main character be a young boy who suddenly discovers he has magical talent is, fair or not, going to be compared to the Harry Potter series. Add in a school for geniuses and those “endowed” with magical talents, a small cadre of mixed (talented and not-talented) friends to aid the main character, suspicious professors, and a missing presumed dead father and you’re almost asking for it. It might not be right, but at least so many people have read Harry Potter that it gives us all a solid baseline standard.
June 8th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Jenny Nimmo | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Let’s not beat around the bush. Angie Sage has clearly been inspired by the world of HARRY POTTER, which makes it somehow impossible to review her work without comparing it to J.K. Rowling. Since Rowling’s phenomenal series exploded across the world of publishing, there has been an onslaught of pre-adolescent youngsters with magical powers and unusual names popping up in the children’s sections of bookstores and libraries everywhere. CHARLIE BONE. PERCY JACKSON. ARTEMIS FOWL. And now, Septimus Heap.
June 7th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Angie Sage | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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