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Saving the Griffin--Kristen Wolden Nitz

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As a child I always loved those simple little stories where magic and reality collide. Books like those of Ruth Chew, Edith Nesbit, and Dick King-Smith. Saving the Griffin is just such a book. It's the gentle tale of a brother and sister who discover something magical one day as they are playing ball in a fantastic garden in Italy. They must keep their delightful secret from the neighbors, their parents, and their older brother who has recently lost his belief in magic now that he has become a teenager. The storyline is simple, the characters are not deep, nothing really bad ever happens--so if you are looking for something edgy and literary--you might want to look elsewhere for your entertainment. However, if you love charming, family stories that you could read aloud to your first grader as they fall asleep at night, this is the book for you.

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