Andrew Hope has inherited Melstone House from his grandfather, along with enough money that he hopes to finally get a chance to pen the book he's always wanted to write. But Andrew figured without a lot of things, the biggest of which is Aidan Cain, a young boy with supernatural troubles. Add in ...
Takes far too long to get going. Not enough action. Pretty exciting, very original, not very interesting.
At least no one can accuse me of not having read this book now. Howl's Moving Castle is probably the single most popular piece of children's fantasy, right after Harry Potter of course. I've heard endless praise for this series ever since it was first released but, for some reason or the other, I...
kids have to beware of a lot of things, sometimes their own families most of all. that seems to be an underlying theme to several of the books in Diana Wynne Jones' splendid series of standalone fantasy novels for children. families are dangerous. they will let you down, they will break your hear...
I first got to know about Diana Wynne Jones a few years back when I discovered a Diana Wynne Jones event being hosted in the blogoshere. I have never heard of her before and so I made a mental note to explore her works later. Then Diana Wynne Jones started cropping up everywhere – I discovered th...
Originally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.I am still making my way through Diana Wynne Jones's backlist. I probably wouldn't have read The Homeward Bounders for a long time to come as it's currently out of print in the the US (except as an e-book) if it weren't for a conversation ...
This is the first Diana Wynne Jones book I ever read. My uncle Harold gave it to me one year for Christmas. It probably changed my life, though I'd be hard pressed to say exactly how.---The above is an old review. Having just heard that Diana Wynne Jones has passed away, I've come back to press m...
Fourteen short, and one not-so-short stories geared towards young readers. A few were intriguing and some tied into Diana Wynne Jones' other books. Unfortunately, the were a few stories that went just a little too long or lost the reader's interest. Since the stories are completely unrealated to ...
Why exactly has no one ever told me about this book before?!Proper review later. I really do not understand how I missed Diana Wynne Jones as a child. It's not like I was too old for her stuff when it was coming out. It's not like there weren't libraries in my town. There were even bookshops! ......
Stopping for a Spell, by Diana Wynne Jones, is a collection of three short stories. The first story is about two children who have to deal with their living room chair coming alive and turning into a person; Chair Person. This Chair Person wreaks havoc in their lives, and they have to find a way ...
Eu acredito que li quando era mais nova um ou outro volume da série Crestomanci, mas confesso que não lembro de nada. Sei que o conheci à mesma época em que estava folheando meus primeiros Pratchett na Nobel, e que um pouco depois disso descobri o brilhante O Castelo Animado, que é da mesma autor...
Everyone has one of those silly books that they're incredibly attached to. Something about it just stirs your heart, and even if the language is simple and the concepts basic, you laugh every time and read it again and again. For many people, these books are those like the Harry Potter series; fo...
I had just finished The Coldest Winter Ever and needed a fluffy detox. So I picked up an old childhood favorite. If you didn’t grow up reading Dianna Wynne Jones, you are severely deprived. She was one of the greatest children’s literature authors of all time. She wrote Howl’s Moving Castle, whic...
Casper, Johnny, and Gwinny are quite unhappy when their mother marries Jack, whose dour nature and heavy handed approach to discipline lead them to dub him The Ogre. Adding to their unhappiness are their two new stepbrothers, Malcolm and Douglas, who are every bit as unappealing as The Ogre, albe...
I first read this one back in high school, if I remember correctly, but I think I was too stupid to understand it properly. I picked it up again because I have en endless faith in Diana Wynne Jones...and I mostly just wanted to prove to myself that she can write, after the totally yawn-inducing M...
An interesting read, and at the same time a very enjoyable one, because Diana Wynne Jones wrote so well. Some claim this to be Jones' first novel. I have no idea, but it was written in 1973, so there's a lot of strange antiquated cultural references that one must wade through in the first couple ...
Publishers and booksellers think they know their market when it comes to the fantasy novels of Diana Wynne Jones and her ilk: young readers aged 9 to 12 or, at a pinch, young adult or teens for her more ‘difficult’ novels. This despite the fact that her fans range upwards in age to other adult fa...
I think it was then that it dawned on me that Mum wasn't going to notice Chris was missing. She has been made so that she thinks Chris is just round the corner all the time. She doesn't realise that she never sees him. I don't know why I didn't understand earlier. If Aunt Maria can turn Chris int...
Eu acredito que li quando era mais nova um ou outro volume da série Crestomanci, mas confesso que não lembro de nada. Sei que o conheci à mesma época em que estava folheando meus primeiros Pratchett na Nobel, e que um pouco depois disso descobri o brilhante O Castelo Animado, que é da mesma autor...
Suasana di Caprona sedang mencekam dan terancam perang. Padahal sebelumnya, kota yang dilindungi oleh Malaikat Caprona, yang dibantu oleh dua klan penyihir terbesar di Caprona ini, Casa Montana dan Casa Petrocchi, berada dalam kedamaian.Tampaknya ada sebuah kekuatan dari luar yang berusaha untuk ...
Heather lives with her parents at Castlemaine and her parents are also the caretakers and tourguides of Castlemaine. Heather would love to live at Castlemaine if it wasn't for every Summer many tourists come. To get away from all tourists and noise, Heather heads off to one of her secret spots in...
Year of the Griffin (not 'The' Year of the Griffin, by the way) is set in the same universe as The Dark Lord of Derkholm and their common source The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, but, bar a few cross references, works equally well as a standalone. Set eight years after Dark Lord, the story is centr...
The Spellcoats is the penultimate installment in Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet and it is very different from its predecessors.If Cart and Cwidder is our introduction to Dalemark, and Drowned Ammet is a fleshing out of that earlier exposure, then The Spellcoats is the (pre) historical volume...
Re-read. This is the first installment in Diana Wynne Jones’ epic Dalemark Quartet. I first read this series when I was 13 or 14 (which is the intended age group), and I remember being so swept up in these books, they remained in my “favorites of all-time” for many years afterward and began my l...
This is the second installment in Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet, and it is the volume that really hooked me and prompted a back-to-back marathon reading of the series when I was 14, and a similar re-read in 2012.Drowned Ammet is essentially the story of Mitt, or Alhammitt Alhammittson to be...
Well, I read book one of the Chrestomanci Chronicles: Charmed Life, written by Diana Wynne Jones. I was excited for this book as I’m excited to read the other books that she has on this list (Howl’s Moving Castle), and after reading this one I can say that I still am. This book is written well ...
In Power Of Three, Diana Wynne Jones's seventh novel, she takes her skill with limited third person perspective and the naive narrator to a new level. Ayna, Gair and Ceri are siblings who live on the Moor, coexisting unpeacefully with the Dorig, water-dwelling fish-like humanoids, and the Giants,...
Finale volume | where past and present meet and, | maybe, all’s resolved.Young Mitt is from South Dalemark, but when he escapes its politics and intrigues he finds that the North is equally dangerous because he is manoeuvred into an assassination attempt on a pretender to the crown of Dalemark. T...
"Tam Lin" is an ancient Scottish legend, told in the form of song and preserved by 19th-century anthologist Francis James Child as one of his "Child Ballads." It is one of the best-known and best-loved of all the Ballads. Over the years, numerous respected folksingers have recorded their own vers...
Diana Wynne Jones does so much with The Pinhoe Egg and makes it look so simple and easy. I think that must be her special gift as a writer: exploring dark themes and complex messages within the pages of children's fantasy novels that remain bright and fun despite the darkness and disorder lurkin...
4.5 starsOriginally posted here at Random Musings of a Bibliophile.I'm still making my way through the full backlist of Diana Wynne Jones. Since I was participating in the 48 Hour Book Challenge last weekend, I decided it was a good time to tackle Deep Secret. I've owned this book for a while but...