JuniorBookWorm.com

The Magicians by Lev Grossman reviewed by Sam Jackson (age:14)

Okay, I want you to think of Harry Potter. Got it? Now, move to America (Upstate New York), make it a university not a school and increase the sex, violence and swearing quota. Then kill Ron. Quiddich is replaced by 'Welters'; a combination of chess, capture the flag and magic. That is the first part of The Magicians.

In the second chunk, they all go to pretty much a Narnia that had been poisoned by evil. There is a really sad twist but I won't ruin it. It is truly fantastic because one character, Elliot, has some of the best lines in anything, ever. For example, when asked how he protects his lungs from his smoking habit, he ensues, and I quote, "I sacrifice virgin school girls every other fortnight by the light of the gibbous moon with a silver scalpel, forged by Swiss albinos who are also virgins." I rest my case.

editor: What else can I add? If you are not curious about the book after that review, then nothing I can say could make a difference. em

The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

If Shadow of the Wind missed your radar then like me, you may not be familiar with the most success modern writer in Spain, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Prince of Mist was my first exposure to his magical story telling. Since this is a young adult novel, I started listening to it with my skeptical grown up ear intact. But like a few of the audio CD's I have listened in the past few years, this one kept me driving, made me long for red lights, traffic and school runs.

It is not a perfect story for the grown up but for children who aren't bogged down by whether stone statues of clowns were the right image to repeatedly describe, it is wonderful. I suspended disbelief when my three young urbanites land in a seaside town in 1943 to escape the impending doom. But the devil incarnate has a history on these chosen shores and the children are excitingly and tragically caught up in it.

They have parents but when the youngest falls into a coma, they take her to the hospital and leave the teenagers to cycle, swim, dive and get to know a local who changes their lives forever.

Dan Stevens reads the story beautifully. I am on a quest now to listen to everything he reads. He most famous to us at the JBW for reading the Alex Rider novels on CD. So when I embarked on the Prince of Mist, it was like being read a story by a family member. His voice, like that of Martin Jarvis is so familiar, so versatile. 

I found this unputdownable. But if you loved Shadow of the Wind, pretend it is by someone else and judge it on its own merits.

Puffin wants to know what your favourite Puffin book is

They're looking for THE Puffin of all Puffins. It is Puffin's seventieth birthday. When I was little we would subscribe to a little Puffin magazine that would wend its way in the summer months to Woodland Drive where I would gratefully await it by my silver mailbox with the red arm.

We are the Junior Bookworm have voted for Charlotte's Web by E.B.White. We loved it way before the Dakota Fanning film and even before the original film. It is a book that I loved as a child but continue to reflect upon as an adult. It is about life and death and everything in between.

(Charlie and the Chocolate factory is in the lead at the moment!)

What was yours?

Vote for YOUR favourite Puffin of the past seventy years.

ps The Junior Bookworm would like to wish Barbara Kingsolver a hearty congratulations upon winning the orange prize.