Fourth in the Circle of Magic fantasy series for young middle-grade readers and revolving around four very supportive friends. It's also fourth in the overall Emelan series.Visit KD Did It Takes on Books for a chronological listing of the books in the Circle of Magic series.My TakeIt's a fun combination of magic, science, and medicine. Pierce has blended this so well, that it feels perfectly normal.I like how Pierce uses the concept of birthdays to provide this back history about Briar, the former Roach, a street rat who got lucky.Pierce dribbles out more back history. It comes out that Lark knows what it's like to be so poor you can't afford food and shelter at the same time. There's a brief description of the struggle involved in finding a way to more safely test possible cures, and the names of the dedicates who gave up their lives in this battle.Aww, poor Tris is having to give up being mean to people. Niko says she's making enemies. It's probably her biggest challenge, lol. Nor do the challenges stop with Tris as Briar has to examine his own dichotomy, his life before and the one he has now. To learn who he is. And he has to work with Crane in his private workshop! The man hates Briar for stealing his shakkan.It is a good opportunity for Briar and Tris to learn more about Crane as a scientist and as a man.One lesson for the kids is learned when they track the source of the plague, and the spell shows them how careless the mage was. Another is why people need to rest even when the need to work is so great.This installment, Pierce specifically states that Rosethorn, Lark, Frostpine, and Crane are great mages. We also learn more about the start of Rosethorn and Crane's self-involved game of competition that began their enmity. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum!The StoryBriar has been helping Rosethorn deliver medications to Urda's House, a place of healing, and with the free time Rosethorn leaves him, he's made a friend. One who's in trouble and presages a disaster in the making.It'll take the talents of all four to help all of Emelan get through this.The Characters EmelanWinding Circle temple is……renowned for its learning and magic.The magic of these four became entwined in Sandry's Circle, 1, and it's been a very useful — and lifesaving — sharing of abilities.Briar Moss is passionate about his ability with plants, and he's about to learn how much more is involved with them. Lady Sandrilene "Sandry" fa Toren is the young mage who wove the four of them together. It makes sense since she does have an affinity for weaving and spinning. Trisana "Tris" Chandler is a mage with an ability for weather. Daja Kisubo has a gift for fire and has apprenticed with a fire mage, Frostpine. Little Bear is their dog.Rosethorn (her pre-Temple name was Niva) is a plant-mage while Lark is a thread-mage, and both live together in Discipline Cottage where our four young mages live. Rosethorn is instructing Briar in gardening and herbal remedies. Niklaren "Niko" Goldeye is a famous and important mage who is instructing the four. Dedicate Frostpine of the Fire Temple is a master smith-mage and Daja is his apprentice. Dedicate Gorse is the chief cook. Superior Dedicate Moonstream is their leader. Dedicate Sealwort is in a great deal of trouble.Dedicate Crane (his pre-Temple name was Isis) is Rosethorn's rival and the head of the Air Temple. Osprey is Crane's apprentice. Peachleaf, the best midwife in Winding Circle, is the quaking dedicate who takes notes as Crane works. Dedicate Acacia. Dedicate Cloudgold is a librarian coopted into helping in the lab.SummerseaDuke Vedris IV is the ruler of Emelan and Sandry's great-uncle. Flick is a street rat and a thief here in Summersea. Alleypup is part of her gang. North Mire, a slum area, is where the first victims are found. Eilisa Pearldrop was an irresponsible mage seeking a quick cure.Urda's HouseJokubas Atwater runs the House. Dedicate Henna is from the Water Temple and well-known for her nursing skills.New patients are Yuvosh and the uncooperative Orji.The Cover and TitleThe cover is blocks of color surrounding a round inset with a delicate scalloped border of interlocking green half circle outlines and a rosette where every other hoop intersects. The central image is of Briar stepping up from the sewer with a light in his hand, finding Flick lying ill in the cavern the street rats created as a haven.The title is where the focus is and Briar's Book is his story.
Briar has always had a connection with plants, and ever since he's been part of the Circle of Magic, it's been a magical connection. But he has a past of petty crime that he's had to grow beyond, and one of the people from that past is thrown back into his life when he finds out a plague is spreading in his old home. And furthermore, his beloved teacher comes down with the illness. He and his partners Sandry, Tris, and Daja have to combine their efforts and their minds once again to do the impossible.Briar is an interesting character--even though he is no longer a thief, he has this sort of rapscallion pride about him, and it's really cool that he has very complicated feelings about his relationship with magic and his connection to the three girls in his partnership situation. In this book, he is forced to deal with quarantine and the inexorable march of disease, battling for a cure so he doesn't lose someone he's come to depend on. I've enjoyed his character growth, but I still felt an odd distance between the narration and the character most of the time I was reading, and had a lot of trouble connecting to this series. I felt like there was a missing piece, because this seems like something I should have liked, concept-wise. Instead, it always just read as basically okay to me, and the escalations felt like they were inevitable--it had to build to something that would always require the kids to join forces in the same way, so I got tired of waiting for it to happen.
What do You think about Briar's Book (2000)?
Briar's Book is the fourth and final book in the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce.Briar and his teacher, Rosethorn, go into the city for some work with a poor hospital and stumble onto an epidemic. The Blue Pox is a new, never before seen disease sweeping Emelan and must be stopped. But our favorite four mages have never been in the middle of an epidemic before. They all must learn new magics and new ways of dealing with the horrors if they're to survive and end this plague.This book really lets us in on the character of each of our four mages, but especially Briar. All of them are stubborn and refuse to accept defeat, even when they must face Death itself. They refuse to stop fighting, even at the risk of their own lives. They refuse to give up on each other.
—Loren Weaver
I'm glad that Briar doesn't have to stay the whole time in quarantine. I would have been really ornery if he did. But I suppose that Pierce couldn't have let the readers in on what goes on in the lab without at least one of her characters there.Also, I was really hoping that Briar and Tris would get together. Sad, my love of romance, isn't it? So sad. But they never do, unless something happens in "The Circle Opens" series.Interesting idea with the plague. I rather liked the small magical compon
—Sharee
I was very disappointed with this final installment in Pierce's Circle of Magic quartet. While her heroines are consistent in their characterization, I don't find Briar to be so in this novel (more so in the first three, actually), but my biggest complaint is that he doesn't follow the arc that the girls do. Each book is focused on one of the four main characters, and that protagonist's story is about learning to control, and then use, her/his magical power. That happens for the three girls, but Briar, a budding plant-mage (no pun intended) doesn't use his talent in his final challenge. I wanted to see his plant magic explode and roar in the culmination of this story, and it didn't. Good suspense and an interesting plot, just a bad decision of how to end it, in my opinion.
—Brian
