I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago and liked it, but I never got around to finishing the series. Probably should have read it closer together . . . This was a perfectly serviceable follow up to The Amulet of Samarkand, and honestly I think my ‘meh’ reaction to it is mostly on me. The only real criticism I have of the book is that it was too long. This is supposed to be children’s/middle grade book, and it’s […]
“When the mist rises, and the smiling man comes walking, you must avoid large places at night.”
Ollie hasn’t been much of a people-person, but since her mother died the only solace she can seem to find is in books. On a bike ride home from school, she comes across a woman sobbing by the lake, trying to talk herself into throwing an old black book into the water. On a whim, Ollie steals the book and discovers within its pages a strange and spooky old story about the Webster family and their tragedy brought on by a sinister “smiling man.” The […]
I spent New Year’s Day in Hogwarts.
First of all I have read this book more times than I can count, literally. I know I’ve read this first one at least twelve times because that’s how many copies of it I own, but that is a gross underestimate because many of those copies I have read multiple times (especially the battered paperback I still have from 1999). I also used to re-read every year, and every time a new book in the series came out, so I’ve read this one the most. My OCD […]
Me and the littles review The Worst Witch
We have family in England that sometimes send the children British books that I hadn’t really known very much about; in the last few years they sent us The Worst Witch, but it hadn’t really caught the kids attention. I knew that it had been a television series and that there were several books, but wasn’t super familiar with the series as well. It seemed like a good candidate for us to review together, after offering to read it aloud to my littles. I quite […]