Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Book Review: Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

Princess Celie and her family - and Castle Glower, of course - are back in this sequel to Tuesdays at the Castle.

Wednesdays in the Tower is a Whitney Award finalist in the Middle Grade category and picks up shortly after the events of Tuesdays at the Castle. Castle Glower is acting a bit oddly.  It's always sprouts new rooms occasionally, but when an entire gallery shows up full of dangerous magical weapons and armor, the king forbids anyone but his son, the wizard Bran, from entering.  And the holiday feasting hall that usually only shows up during that festive time of year, suddenly appears out of season.  And then there's the new room that the Castle will only allow Celie to enter - an open room at the top of a tower with a large orange egg in the middle.

The Castle starts affecting what people can hear and see as well as it hides the new tower room, the egg, and what hatches from the egg, from everyone but Celie.  Even Celie is getting confused and worried by the Castle's strange behavior.

Then Wizard Hadlocke shows up, ostensibly to help Bran study the magical weapons, but he seems far more interested in the castle itself.  Celie and Bran, whom the Castle finally lets in on the secret, try to gather as much information about the history and mythology surrounding the Castle as they can without raising suspicions.

Wednesdays in the Tower is definitely a little darker than Tuesdays at the Castle. There was less humor to balance out the threatening enemies, and more questions raised than answered. The Castle's quirkiness, which was unexplained but fairly benign in the last book, becomes a threat itself, a destabilizing force for the children and the reader. The story ends in a decided cliffhanger, so I'm sure we have Thursdays in a Strange Land or something coming up soon.

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Wednesdays in the Tower
by Jessica Day George
ISBN: 9781599906454
Buy it from Amazon here: (hardcoverpaperbackebook)
Find it at a local independent bookseller.
Look it up on Goodreads.
Check it out at your local library (find the nearest one here)

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