What do You think about Charlie Bone And The Castle Of Mirrors (2005)?
Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors is about Charlie's fourth term at Bloor's Academy. His friend Billy Raven, an albino orphan who can communicate with animals, is suddenly adopted by a mysterious couple known as the de Greys. Charlie manages to find a photograph of the de Greys on Manfred Bloor's desk, and immediately suspects that they don't really want to adopt Billy. Charlie and his endowed friends have also been hearing sounds of a ghost horse running around the grounds of Bloor's Academy, and they notice that their supposedly unendowed friend Olivia Vertigo is acting very strange. Billy's guardian, Christopher Crowquill, returns to the city after spending several years in prison, attempts to get custody of Billy. All of the mysterious activities occurring at Bloor's at the time seems to be related to the legendary Castle of Mirrors, where Charlie goes and visits with Billy, only to find that Billy is the rightful heir of the Castle of Mirrors. Along the way they find that the cause for Olivia's strange behavior, was the sudden development of her endowment of creating elaborate illusions. The novel ends with Charlie and his friends returning to Bloor's, and trying to keep Olivia's new found powers a secret. What I like about this installment of the Children of the Red King series is that it focuses on the back story of some of secondary characters that aren't direct relatives of Charlie. This is the first book in the series to do so, with its focus on Billy and Olivia. I also like how Charlie is shown in this novel taking his first notable interest in his own personal family history, and the history of his fellow endowed children.
—Cindell Nelson
In a dark labatory deep within Bloor's Academy, Manfred and Ezekiel Bloor are brewing up a very nasty kind of trouble with Charlie Bone...The prologue begins when the Red King and his wife, Queen Bernice, are riding by the sea. They spot a beautiful island, the Island of a Thousand Blues. She had a premonition of her children fighting there, and tells her husband that her children must never see the island. Charlie starts a new term at Bloor's Academy, and already trouble begins to brew. Ezekiel Bloor, with the help of his grandson and the Yewbeam Aunts, have brought the horse of Borlath back to life. But in fact, it's not Borlath, it's Queen Bernice, the Red King's wife. Billy Raven is promised new parents from the Bloors, and gets the horrible de Greys for parents. Can Charlie and his friends rescue Billy from the de Greys? And more importantly, can Charlie really tell Billy his past?However, Uncle Paton is in danger. Yorath Yewbeam told him not to harm Yolanda; and Paton electrocuted her. Will Yorath get his revenge, or will Paton destroy the older shape-shifting Yewbeam?I think that this series is a major find. It's good for people of all ages and anyone CAN read it. I specifically recommend this series to people who like Harry Potter, fantasy, magical powers and... boarding schools.
—Katie
I really liked this book because it was intriguing and I wanted to read more and more of it. Certain parts of it are kind of dull, with not as much action happening as there usually is. Although, there are very few of those parts and the characters are very interesting. Such as Tancred, a boy who can control the weather. When Charlie went to the castle of mirrors, I was excited because I thought that he would finally find his father. Charlie ended up being disappointed though, as it was not actually his father. Maybe he will in the next one, at least I certainly hope so! I wish that another book comes out soon in this series, as it is a great [series]. I have read all of these books so far and can't wait for the next one to come out. If you are a person that loves fiction with magical powers, this is a book for you. Jenny Nimmo is a great author.
—Jacob Bennett
