Friday, January 8, 2010

Review by Shellie: The Magic Warble by Victoria Simcox

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Mini Synopsis:

Christina is a smart girl on the verge of being a teenager, but is essentially still a child. She is slightly awkward, wearing mismatched socks and a bit of an outcast at school. Her best friend is her rat, Raymond.

On the last day of school before Christmas vacation her teacher gives her a mysterious present – an unusual and light filled globe. She dismisses it until she falls into another realm through her family’s laundry shoot. There she discovers that she is in fact in the possession of a “Magic Warble”. It will save this fantastic realm from a very evil and heartless queen and she alone is responsible for replacing it in its rightful spot.

As the story enfolds Kristina will be helped and hindered by others on her journey. These characters are a displaced prince, a jealous fairy, misguided gnomes, conflicted dwarves, talking animals, monsters with horrible breath, and some of the friends whom at school view her as a wall flower - whom have also been pulled magically into this world.

What I Thought:

The Magic Warble is a sweet introduction to fantasy for preteens and younger, especially girls. I can see a young person enjoying it by either reading it themselves or having it read to them. There are pictures strategically placed within the writing which is good for a younger reader helping them visualize.The language is mild and easy to follow. There is only a slight amount of violence, a few clichés, and one generalization that I noted about women mentioned. The main message is clearly of a moral nature, and the author succeeds in supporting the belief that faith is important. It is a lovely and mostly light story. I give The Magic Warble 3.5 stars.

  • For more information on The Magic Warble and Victoria Simcox please see Layers of Thought’s Preview for the book.

  • 4 comments:

    Emily Cross said...

    Oh, what year was this published shellie? It sounds like a good read (purely want to see how the author writes the laundry shoot scene :) )

    Thanks for the review!

    I may add it to the tbr pile that is now like mt. everest lol

    Unknown said...

    2009 - I deleted the book stats and will not do so next time....

    The main character was chasing her pet rat down the shoot - I believe and when she reached the bottom she fell into the other realm.
    My memory is getting so bad...

    I was thinking how it didn't quite work - I thought some sort of membrane or light effected tunnel would have been fun.

    I am doing a giveaway for the book it ends Sunday. If you win I will mail it to you when we are in the UK if your interested.

    Not a lot of entries so chances are good. :)


    http://www.layersofthought.net/2009/12/blog-tour-give-away-and-review-magic.html

    Emily Cross said...

    Oh i'll check it out.

    I'm in ireland and its bad enough (probably not by US/eastern europe standards) but i hear UK is even worse. We're not used to minus something weather

    Emily Cross said...

    Oh i'll check it out.

    I'm in ireland and its bad enough (probably not by US/eastern europe standards) but i hear UK is even worse. We're not used to minus something weather