Author: Brian Keaney
Series: The Magical Detectives (book 1)
Publisher: Orchard
Release Date: 3 Feb 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1408306819
Synopsis
When Otto returns home from school one day to find his mother missing, and then discovers an advert for the Magical Detective Agency, he decides there's nothing for it but to call on their services. In fact, the agency is just one man, a strange character call Maximillan Hawksmoor, who becomes convinced that Otto's mother has been abducted by Elementals - beings who live in a completely different world. It's not long before Otto, plus his friend Juliet and her cat Cornelius, join Max on a strange and dangerous journey to rescue Otto's mother - in a world where anything is possible...
My Review
This is another book that has been nominated for Children's Book of the Year with our Children's Book Group. I am reading all the shortlist first before they are given to the Children. Aimed at 8-12 year olds.
I read this in about 2 hours, it is just over 200 pages long but I actually really enjoyed it.
Otto comes up to find his mother missing, when he comes across a card advertising a magical detective agency he decides he needs all the help he can get.
Otto ends up traveling to a completely different world with Maximillian the wizard and Juliet a girl from school and her cat Cornelius.
The pacing is good and the story flows, there is a good mixture of adventure, magic, mystery, monsters, humour and intrigue.
Cornelius is my favourite, he can 'talk' in the magic world and has a great dry sense of humour, I loved it.
I think this will be a god one for my reading group, perfect for both boys and girls, fun and gripping and just the right length.
My Rating
I would give this book 8/10. Really enjoyed it. Want to find book 2. :D
4 comments:
That's a great cover. I'm kind of sad that my kids have outgrown these middle grade books. I enjoyed reading a lot of them with my kids. I suppose I could read them on my own, but with my TBR pile so huge I'd have a hard time justifying it.
I know what you mean, there are so many great ones out there but having time to read them is a problem. I wanted to read this for a while but couldn't justify it, i only ended up reading this because I had to for work. Otherwise I would have kept putting it to one side.
Glad I did though.
:D
The cover makes this book look so fun. Thanks for the review.
thanks Aimee :D
Post a Comment