I have been reading Diana Wynne Jones’ books since I was ten years old, and I have never found one to be disappointing. Her latest, House of Many Ways, is a companion to two of my favorites: Howl’s Moving Castle, and Castle in the Air. It’s also definitely my favorite of all of her books that have come out in the last several years.
The story concerns Charmain Baker, a young girl sent by her Great Aunt Semphronia to take care of her Great-Great Uncle William’s house, while he is away being treated for a great illness. Not only is Great-Great Uncle William a wizard, but his house–and possibly his dog–are magical as well. Charmain’s mother has raised her to be perfectly “respectable;” thus, she has no experience with magic whatsoever, and even less experience taking care of a house.
The story of Charmain’s housesitting might have turned out to be full of nothing but cooking and cleaning–quite boring, in Charmain’s view, when one could be reading a book instead–except for two things. 1. Charmain sends a letter to the King of High Norland, offering to help out in his library. And 2. Peter, the Witch of Montalbino’s son, appears on Great-Great Uncle William’s doorstep, demanding to be his apprentice.
In less than a week, Charmain’s life suddenly includes fire demons, flying castles, magical tea trolleys, doorways that go back in time, traitorous kobolds, terrifying purple lubbocks, and the world’s most annoyingly beautiful 4-year-old boy named Twinkle.
As usual, Jones’ writing is delightful, and, as I mentioned previously, so compelling that one is swept along into the story with no desire to put the book down. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I can only hope that Jones will write many (many) more books.
Posted by: Sarah
Along with ducks, monkeys are my favorite animal and as the back cover of the book states this one is “perfect for little monkeys everywhere.” 
Skulduggery is a person — or rather a skeleton that was a person — who also happens to be a detective that can use magic. Confused yet? Enter Stephanie Edgley, a girl who wants to avenge her uncle’s death and go on exciting adventures. Her uncle, a very rich, very eccentric man, was friends with Skullduggery, but none of Stephanie’s family had ever met him before.
A lot of people think biographies are big and boring.
This is a new historical fiction series from this author called “I Witness”. Avi explains that although these stories are fictional, he tried to stay as close to what really happened as possible. The author has used real newspaper accounts, letters, telegraph messages, and whatever eyewitness accounts he could find. This really makes the story more interesting knowing how many of the details are true. I really felt like I was on board the Monitor along with the main character, Tom Carroll. Tom is a 13-year-old boy growing up during the Civil War, and his father has just been killed fighting for the Union. Since it is just Tom, his mother, and his sickly sister, Tom must get a job to help support his family. He finds himself working for the inventor of the first ironclad ship, the Monitor, whose main purpose is to fight and 
I have long been interested in a certain New York City celebrity resident. He first tried living in Central Park, but got chased away; but his second try for a place to live turned golden. Imagine living at a fancy Fifth Avenue exclusive and expensive apartment building, high up, overlooking Central Park! That‘s just what my celebrity did. Across the street, in the park, crowds of people would gawk each day, some using telescopes and binoculars to see this celebrity and invade his privacy. At one point, the snooty apartment building evicted this resident and his family because the way they lived was a bit dirty and annoying to some of the other residents. But, when you have true-blue followers of your every move, and you are true celebrity, then newspaper and television media get involved and so do hordes of protestors, all on your behalf. The apartment building relented and allowed the celebrity back to live. Although he no longer lives on Fifth Avenue now, tour bus operators still point out the building made famous by Pale Male, the first citizen hawk of New York City.
If you had a favorite fairy tale when you were growing up, would you like to know more about the characters and the story than the Grimm Brothers recorded in their collection of tales? But how could you know what the characters were thinking and what else took place in their lives? Shannon Hale solved that problem by imagining some more elaborate happenings for Ani, a princess who was cheated out of her arranged marriage by her lady-in-waiting and became a goose girl while biding her time to claim her rightful crown. This extensive retelling of the goose girl story is full of adventure and suspense as Ani, a girl with the gift of talking to animals, grows in independence and resourcefulness and learns how to use her gifts to become a people talker as well as an animal talker.
Oh my gosh! Wendy Choy, Gilda’s best friend, has qualified for an international piano competition and is going to Oxford, England!
Here he comes to save the day! Horace Splattly, the Cupcaked Crusader is on the way!
