Scan barcode
A review by ehays84
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
4.0
Whenever I have chosen to read an E. Nesbit, I have always been rewarded. This book is no exception. Sure, it's not very polished, but it was very fun. A lot of the magic of it definitely inspired the Edward Eager Half-Magic books (which he readily admits), and those were favorites of mine growing up as my mom read them to us. But I also wonder how much all of the ring magic Tolkien was aware of when he wrote The Hobbit. Of course, ring magic goes back a long ways in Norse and Anglo-Saxon tales, but I wonder if anyone has a way of finding out how much Nesbit Tolkien or Lewis for that matter ever read.
Lots of parts of this book were very funny, and Jackson often laughed out loud as I was reading it to him. Ironically, we sort of started reading this on a whim because it was on my kindle when we were on a trip, but Jackson ended up telling me several times that he really wanted to push on and finish reading this book, and I am very glad that we did.
Gerald was such a memorable character, with all of his panache and schemes. Mademoiselle was also a great character, and the children's relationship with her, which sort of explores how much magin can transcend the world of children, was very well done. Jackson reminds me that the elements with 7 and the magic of the ring were interesting and kept you guessing at what would happen next. Jackson says his favorite part was with the ugly-wuglies, and while that part did start out kind of startling, it ended up being really funny.
One last interesting thought: at least in the kindle version I picked up free at some point in some sort of collected works of E. Nesbit, the word I would spell clue was spelled clew. I wonder if British spelling of that has changed over at all.
Lots of parts of this book were very funny, and Jackson often laughed out loud as I was reading it to him. Ironically, we sort of started reading this on a whim because it was on my kindle when we were on a trip, but Jackson ended up telling me several times that he really wanted to push on and finish reading this book, and I am very glad that we did.
Gerald was such a memorable character, with all of his panache and schemes. Mademoiselle was also a great character, and the children's relationship with her, which sort of explores how much magin can transcend the world of children, was very well done. Jackson reminds me that the elements with 7 and the magic of the ring were interesting and kept you guessing at what would happen next. Jackson says his favorite part was with the ugly-wuglies, and while that part did start out kind of startling, it ended up being really funny.
One last interesting thought: at least in the kindle version I picked up free at some point in some sort of collected works of E. Nesbit, the word I would spell clue was spelled clew. I wonder if British spelling of that has changed over at all.