  | Twilight hauntings (Enchanter's child) Author: Sage, Angie | |
| Price: $22.38 | ||
Summary:
Alex has a set of Enchanted cards. When she flutters her fingers above them, something magical happens: the cards come alive and create moving pictures of what is now and what is yet to come. But Enchantment is illegal in the city of Luma, and those who practice it are imprisoned forever in the Vaults--dark dungeons deep below the city. When Alex is betrayed by her foster sister Zerra, she knows she is in great danger. With the help of her little foster brother, Louie, she makes a daring escape. But Alex discovers she is not safe outside Luma either. Here lurk deadly Hauntings that seek out those who practice magic.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 5.40 Points: 11.0 Quiz: 508876 |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (+) (12/01/19)
School Library Journal (+) (02/01/20)
Booklist (12/15/19)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/02/20)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 12/15/2019 Ten years after Enchanters and their children were outlawed in the kingdom of Rekadom, 11-year-old Alex and her enchanted cards are reported to the authorities—by her own foster sister, no less. Making a narrow escape with her younger foster brother and the family pokkle (a hilarious lizard-parrot creature), Alex sets out to discover just who she is and where she belongs, with the cards as her only clue. She is pursued everywhere she goes by Twilight Hauntings—curses and creatures meant to hunt down and rid Rekadom of those who practice magic—but she is helped, too, by a colorful cast of friends old and new. Readers know from the start who Alex’s father is, and roughly half the narrative follows his attempts to find her. The plot relies heavily on drawing out this miscommunication-driven goose chase, but it’s a charming, if sometimes frustrating, chase to watch unfold. This duology opener will surely find fans among readers of Sage’s own popular Septimus Heap books, as well as Patrick Carman’s Land of Elyon series. - Copyright 2019 Booklist.
School Library Journal - 02/01/2020 Gr 4–7—Sage kicks off the first book in her "Enchanter's Child" duology with a prologue that describes how the King's Enchanter gave up his baby daughter to an unknown woman in order to save her. Ten years later in the city of Luma, Alex knows nothing of her true parents; only the drudgery of doing household chores while her stepmother and foster sisters boss her around. She does have two comforts—her younger brother Louie and her hexagonal cards that can foretell the future. But Luma has banned magic and when one sister betrays her to the Sentinels, Alex and Louie must flee. They escape to a forest but are pursued by deadly Twilight Hauntings including river snakes, stinging butterflies, a giant Hawke, and the suffocating Gray Walker. Meanwhile, the ex-Enchanter Hagos Ravenstarr forms an alliance with the Hawke's former Flyer, Danny. They start searching for the magical items needed to destroy the Hauntings; the same quest Alex also undertakes. Sage has built a fully realized world populated by intriguing characters and terrifying monsters. She skillfully builds tension using plot twists that include friendship and betrayal, good intentions and misunderstandings, fearsome attacks and daring escapes, and family dramas of various sorts. VERDICT Fans of fantasy and adventure will snap this up and eagerly await the sequel. A first purchase.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
