Over 3.4 million Charlie Bone books in print!!!Charlie's power is taking on a new dimension as he meets a new cast of characters, including Mr. Pilgrim's replacement, Tantalus Ebony, and the mysterious new student Joshua Tilpin, who appears to be magnetic. But Charlie isn't the only one dealing with changes . . . Billy has been adopted by a child-hating couple called the O'Gres, who carry a gray bag of oaths wherever they go, pressuring Billy to sign an oath of obedience, and locking him behind a force field in an odd place called The Passing House. Will Charlie be able to rescue Billy and uncover the mystery behind Joshua's power?From School Library JournalGrade 5-8–Charlie Bone is starting a new school year and once again there are unpleasant surprises in store for him and his friends at Bloor's Academy. Little Billy Raven has finally been adopted, but the sinister de Greys have other plans for Billy, and it is up to Charlie and his friends to find a way to save him. Nimmo once again delivers an exciting, plot-driven tale that is sure to please fantasy and adventure fans. This new chapter in Charlie's saga is full of plot twists and thrills that will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. While the character development is a bit lacking, fantasy fans will enjoy the story.–Anna M. Nelson, Collier County Public Library, Naples, FL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistGr. 4-6. In the fourth book of the projected five in the Red King series, Charlie Bone and his friends (and enemies) begin a new term at Bloor's Academy, where many of the students and staff are endowed with magical abilities. Hoping to find his father and help a friend, Charlie travels to the ominous Castle of Mirrors. Nimmo adds several inventive elements to this magical world, including the transformation of Charlie's wand into a silent creature of mysterious power. Explaining the complex background story and introducing the many characters to new readers slows down the action quite a bit at the start, but the pace picks up nicely when Charlie goes to the rescue of his friend Billy. Prediction: this fantasy should do quite well, assuming a continuing demand for stories about a nice lad with magical powers who goes to boarding school, longs to see his father, has adventures, makes a few mistakes, and gets by with a little help from his friends. Carolyn PhelanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedAbout the AuthorJenny Nimmo lives in a converted watermill in Wales. Her husband, David, is a painter and print-maker, and all three of her children speak Welsh fluently. She finds Wales, a land of legends, a very inspiring place to live. For as long as she can remember, Jenny has loved books. She feels passionately that every child should have access to as many books as they want. Jenny enjoys writing about magic because it is inexplicable and unpredictable, and anything can happen. In 1986 her book, The Snow Spider, won the Smarties Grand Prix, and in 1987 it was awarded the Tir na n-Og by the Welsh Arts Council. The Rinaldi Ring, was chosen as Guardian Book of the Week and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and received a commendation.

The second book in the Children of the Red King series, TIME TWISTER offers more magical fantasy that is fast paced and easy to read.January 1916:Henry Yewbeam and his younger brother, James, have been sent to stay with their cousins at the Bloor's Academy. It is one of the coldest days of the year, and all Henry wants to do is hide from his mean cousins and play marbles. He finds a nice, long hall and begins to roll his marbles. Then he discovers a marble that doesn't look familiar to him. Suddenly a series of strange events takes place. Henry begins to disappear. He quickly scribbles on the floor GIVE THE MARBLE TO JAMES, and then he vanishes from the year 1916.From School Library JournalGrade 4-7-In this sequel to Midnight for Charlie Bone (Scholastic, 2003), Nimmo continues the saga of the endowed descendants of the Red King, who attend a very Hogwarts-like boarding school called Bloor's Academy. "The Time Twister," a marblelike ball with the power to transport people through time, brings Henry Yewbeam from 1916 to present day Bloor's. His evil, scheming cousin Ezekiel, who was responsible for sending him to the future, is still alive, and Charlie Bone must protect Henry and find a way to send him back into the past. This is a breezy read, even at its 400-page length. Sadly, there are plot elements that seem to come totally out of the blue or that just don't make sense. The power with which each individual child is endowed, such as the ability to create storms or to transform into a bird, seems arbitrarily created to provide dramatic rescues. A painting of a wizard named Skarpo is left for Charlie by one of his aunts. As readers of the first book know, Charlie can hear voices in pictures, and they now discover that he can actually enter them as well. Oddly, Henry seems unfazed by his trip through time and by the modern world. The unexpected plot twist at the end is strangely unclimactic, and seems to pass by so quickly that any sense of triumph at the outcome is lost. Charlie Bone is a likable character to whom kids will turn to for a fix after they've finished the latest Harry Potter for the fifth time. For libraries where fantasy is popular.Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistGr. 5-7. In the second volume of a planned five, young Charlie discovers new dimensions to his magical talents while helping an age-mate who drops from thin air at wizardly Bloor Academy (and turns out to be a long-lost great-granduncle) escape the clutches of the Red King's less savory descendants. Like the first installment, this stays solidly in the Harry Potter slipstream--there's even a hidden chamber and a miraculous bird flying to the rescue. But it has some ingenious features of its own, including a cafe that admits only customers with pets, and such oddball magics as one character's involuntary ability to make every nearby light bulb explode. Nimmo's world is also darker than Rowling's (so far, at least), with the line between good guys and bad not as well defined. Still, Potterphiles, and many Snicketteers too, will find the territory comfortably familiar. John PetersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedAbout the AuthorJenny Nimmo lives in a converted watermill in Wales. Her husband, David, is a painter and print-maker, and all three of her children speak Welsh fluently. She finds Wales, a land of legends, a very inspiring place to live. For as long as she can remember, Jenny has loved books. She feels passionately that every child should have access to as many books as they want. Jenny enjoys writing about magic because it is inexplicable and unpredictable, and anything can happen. In 1986 her book, The Snow Spider, won the Smarties Grand Prix, and in 1987 it was awarded the Tir na n-Og by the Welsh Arts Council. The Rinaldi Ring, was chosen as Guardian Book of the Week and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and received a commendation.

Jenny Nimmo's award-winning SNOW SPIDER TRILOGY is back as an exciting Orchard Books fantasy series! On Gwyn's 9th birthday, his grandmother tells him he may be a magician, like his Welsh ancestors. She gives him five gifts to help him--a brooch, a piece of dried seaweed, a tin whistle, a scarf, and a broken toy horse. One blustery day, unsure what to do with his newfound magic, Gwyn throws the brooch to the wind and receives a silvery snow spider in return. Will he be able to use this special spider to bring his missing sister, Bethan, home? THE SNOW SPIDER spins an icy, sparkly web of mystical intrigue that sets the stage for the next two books in this outstanding trilogy! Book Details: Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 9/1/2006 Pages: 160 Reading Level: Age 8 and Up

A magical fantasy that is fast-paced and easy-to-read. Charlie Bone has a special gift- he can hear people in photographs talking.The fabulous powers of the Red King were passed down through his descendants, after turning up quite unexpectedly, in someone who had no idea where they came from. This is what happened to Charlie Bone, and to some of the children he met behind the grim, gray walls of Bloor's Academy.Charlie Bone has discovered an unusual gift-he can hear people in photographs talking! His scheming aunts decide to send him to Bloor Academy, a school for genius's where he uses his gifts to discover the truth despite all the dangers that lie ahead.From School Library JournalGrade 4-6-When he is 10 years old, Charlie discovers that he is able to look at photographs and hear conversations and even thoughts that were taking place at the time the photo was taken, a legacy of his ancestor the Red King, whose descendants all have different magical abilities. Charlie hears one conversation that sets him on a search for a girl who has been missing for years, and when he begins attending Bloor's Academy, an elite boarding school for the rich and the endowed (as the Red King's descendants are called), his life becomes full of intrigue and danger. Charlie, his friend Benjamin, and other allies try to unlock the secrets of a mysterious case that could get the girl back, while the sinister Bloors and Charlie's ghastly relatives who are endowed try to thwart them. While the parallels with Harry Potter are obvious, this fantasy has its own charms, chief among them being the endoweds' often-odd magical abilities. The writing is deft, most of the characters are intriguing, and Charlie Bone is an appealing boy. The story is marred by some predictability, and the role of the endowed in this otherwise contemporary, unmagical society is not clear. Many aspects of the book are not fully thought out, making it less compelling than it might be. However, this is the first of a projected series, so it will be interesting to see if some of these vague points are resolved. A flawed but worthwhile offering for avid fantasy fans.Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public LibraryCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistGr. 4-6. These days stories about schools for budding magicians are inevitably compared to the Harry Potter books. Indeed, British author Nimmo's creation, Bloor's Academy "for gifted children," bears some resemblance to Hogwart's School, but the story itself is quite different. Seemingly ordinary Charlie Bone suddenly discovers that he can hear the thoughts of people in photographs, a talent that dour Grandma Bone and her three baleful sisters work to bend to their own ends by sending him to Bloor's and to its sinister headmaster. It's not an easy year for Charlie despite the friends he makes. Too many people have it in for him as he's swept into an age-old battle being waged by descendants of a powerful king of long ago. A mysterious box, a missing girl, a strange man who flits in and out in the company of three brightly colored cats, and various villains all figure into Charlie's exciting, fast-paced adventure tale, which happily is the first book in planned quintet called Children of the Red King. Harry Potter's myriad fans will be well pleased. Sally EstesCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedAbout the AuthorJenny Nimmo lives in a converted watermill in Wales. Her husband, David, is a painter and print-maker, and all three of her children speak Welsh fluently. She finds Wales, a land of legends, a very inspiring place to live. For as long as she can remember, Jenny has loved books. She feels passionately that every child should have access to as many books as they want. Jenny enjoys writing about magic because it is inexplicable and unpredictable, and anything can happen. In 1986 her book, The Snow Spider, won the Smarties Grand Prix, and in 1987 it was awarded the Tir na n-Og by the Welsh Arts Council. The Rinaldi Ring, was chosen as Guardian Book of the Week and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and received a commendation.

The sixth magical adventure in the NY TIMES bestselling CHARLIE BONE series!Life should be perfect for Charlie now that his parents have been reunited. But mystery and adventure always find him. This time Asa, a fellow classmate who changes into a beast at dusk and Charlie's sometime enemy, is missing. His parents seek out Charlie for help, and now Charlie needs the help of the Flames to rescue his classmate.Manfred Bloor has also taken the new endowed student, Dagbert Endless, under his wing and Charlie is highly suspicious of the pair. Can the Flames and Charlie rescue Asa without being caught by Manfred and Dagbert?