Dhonielle ClaytonThe Marvellers

I pay attention to the books that my students check out from the school library over and over...this is one of them. My third grade girls love this book!

This is a present not yet given for my granddaughter’s 12th birthday, thought I’d just have a quick read through to see if it is suitable, oh my I love it! It’s like Harry Potter for girls! Now half way through the book, better get a shimmy on as its her birthday soon

I liked this one! There were a few revelations at the end that seemed to come out of nowhere, but that’s probably just the author having big plans for the next installment of the series. The audiobook is good, too, if you get the chance to listen to it!

This has a wonderful world, some gorgeous characters and amazing messages of acceptance, tolerance and empowerment. A magical school, making friends, being different and everyone thinking you’re an enemy is a LOT to deal with… but my gosh, I enjoyed this! I look forward to more from this world… the deceptive villain will most certainly be back to tantalise me!

Perhaps I should amend my title…might be tough for younger readers who are white or struggle with reading. There are a ton of references to worldly things, other countries, and languages. The names of the characters do not skew towards typical white names, instead they are nuanced and represent many different ethnicities. There are also many references to other cultural touchstones, like black hairstyles and southern foods and traditions.We are white new englanders, so my kid who hasn’t had many opportunities to travel and experience other cultures needed a LOT of explaining throughout the book (e.g., New Orleans specific references, jollof rice, locs, bottle trees…).As far as reading it aloud, the chapters are long and some of it is a little clunky (mostly longer names that don’t roll off the tongue, e.g., Headmarveller Rivera and Masterji Thakur are tongue twisters at times)The story is lovely, maybe a bit similar to other “magic” books out there (first time at a new magic school, bad guys, ostracism for being “different”, etc…).I mostly gave it 4 stars for being worldly and representative and introducing kids to all sorts of stuff that they might not encounter while reading. But if I had to choose between this and other magic tales we’ve read, I think Morrigan Crow and the Wundersmith series sets the bar incredibly high.