Skip to main content

Thirteenth Child--by Patricia C. Wrede

By



If you took Little House on the Prarie and Harry Potter and mixed it up in a bowl, this charming story is what you'd get as a result. In Eff Rothmer's world, where magic is the norm, a thirteenth child is considered to be a curse. Everyone knows a thirteenth child is filled with evil magic and will always go bad in the end. Eff is the thirteenth child in her family and no one in her home town is going to ever let her forget it. To make matters worse, Eff's twin brother Lan is the seventh son of a seventh son and the whole town believes he will someday become one of the most powerful magicians of all time. To protect Eff and Lan from the prejudiced influence of family and neighbors, their parents decide to move out west and settle in the western frontier--where dangerous magical creatures roam and no one knows Eff and Lan's birth order. The rules of magic in this fictional world are wholly believable. The attention to detail makes you sometimes forget it is not a historical novel you are reading. Unfortunately, this is only the first book in a series, so if you want to learn more about Eff and Lan's adventures you will have to wait for it. I'll be the one on hold ahead of you.

Comments

Raspberry said…
I have been waiting for this for ever it seems!
April 23, 2009 at 2:57 PM
DeeDee said…
I love Patricia Wrede. I can hardly wait to read this.
April 23, 2009 at 7:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Mythmakers

By
  The Mythmakers By John Hendrix New York: Abrams Fanfare, 2024. Informational. 217 pages.  Before C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had ever published world-renowned literature, they were friends. This book starts with the boyhood of each author, discussing how each lost their parents and the toll that took on them. It moves on to talk about the experience of each man in the trenches of World War I, and their eventual meeting at Oxford. It further chronicles their "fellowship" through the writing of many of their notable works, as well as their eventual falling out.  This book is an interesting mix of comic and narrative nonfiction, flipping back and forth between chapters. A lion and wizard appear in the comic portions (in a nod to Aslan and Gandalf) to explain background information about mythology, the time period, and other pertinent information about the two. The author makes use of a limited color palette, using mostly greens, purples, and yellows, to draw the reader i...
Post a Comment
Read more