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Title: House of Many Ways
Series: World of Howl #3
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Pages: 162
Words: 70.5K
| Synopsis: |
From Wikipedia & Me
Charmain Baker has led a respectable, and relaxing sheltered life. She has spent her days with her nose in a book, never learning how to do even the smallest household chores. When she suddenly ends up looking after the tiny cottage of her ill Great-Uncle William she seems happy for the adventure, but the easy task of house-sitting is complicated by the fact that Great-Uncle William is also the Royal Wizard Norland and his magical house bends space and time.
Though she is supposed to clean up the mess William has left the house in, Charmain knows next to nothing about magic, and yet she seems to work it in the most unexpected way. The house’s single door can lead to almost any place – from other rooms like the kitchen, to faraway places like the Royal Palace, and even other time periods. In her first days in the magical house she ends up looking after a magical stray dog named Waif, encounters a horrible lubbock, has to share a roof with a confused young apprentice wizard named Peter, tries to work some spells from William’s library, and deals with a clan of small blue creatures called Kobolds.
When Charmain is caught up in an intense royal search to remedy the kingdom’s financial troubles, she encounters Sophie Pendragon, her son Morgan, a beautiful child named Twinkle, and their fire demon Calcifer. One of the messes Twinkle gets Charmain into results in Twinkle climbing onto the roof of the Royal Mansion. She is soon involved in curing the kingdom of its ills and rediscovering the long-lost mystical Elfgift.
Calcifer destroys the Lubbock, Howl turns the Lubbockin (children of the Lubbock) into tiny versions and Waif eats them, as she turns out to be a magical dog and the Elfgift. She is bonded to Charmain, who it looks like will be the next royal wizard after her ever so great Uncle William passes on. Peter turns out to be the next heir of Norland and all the missing money is found, making Norland solvent again.
| My Thoughts: |
This was pretty good, rather good in fact, but there was something missing that I can’t put my finger on that made me give this 4 stars instead of 5. Pretty much what I’ve written about Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air still apply here, but something didn’t quite fill me perfectly up.
Other than something that I can’t even describe or figure out, this was another fantastic entry in the World of Howl series. Reading this trilogy so close together has been a very enjoyable experience and I don’t regret it one bit. I’ve tried other DWJ books and they didn’t really work as well for me, so I’m going to just wish there were more Howl books and leave it at that.
Having such success with this does make me wonder what other middle grade books I should try. I don’t know if I’m brave enough or willing enough to attempt that though. I think my best bet is to just relish what I’ve read here and leave it alone. No need to get greedy.
★★★★☆
What’s middle grade? Wait, are you reviewing books with a reading age less than your own?
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Our school system is divided roughly like this:
Elementary: kindergarten-5th grade.
Middle grade- 6-8th grade
highschool- 9-12th grade
college
I am. but very cautiously…
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So future reviews might be stuff like Clifford the Big Red Dog?
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Not very likely but the chances aren’t zero.
How’s that for early morning crypticness? 🙂
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You are truly a master of wordsmithery…
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I walk the fine line between Dickens and Fraggle. Bloviation on one side, single words on the other. I thread the narrow path between!
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CLIFFORD HAHAHAHAHAHA What a throwback to my own childhood, that is. And to make me imagine Bookstooge review a story from that franchise… Oh boy.
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Strange at times isn’t it? That we read or watch something that we don’t hate, but also for some reason can’t like completely because there is something missing….but what we can’t really put a finger on. That said: 4 stars, and an overall positive review….guess I’m adding this part to my howl’s to read list as well 😀
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This is a great trilogy and I do recommend the whole thing. Just have to accept that this isn’t as great as the first two 😀
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I’ve enjoyed reading more kids books this summer than ever before…something about the simple adventure storylines and dated dialogue has appealed to my inner savage beast during the pandemic!
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I wish I could read more of them, but I simply never know if it will turn out well or not. I can’t take that chance.
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https://mastersofironing.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/coming-soon-masters-of-ironing/
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Hahahahahahahahahaa! Dude, you are the best. I wish I’d had the stones to do this first 😀
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You are the wind beneath my wings…
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Well, I’m certainly full of enough hot air 😀
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There are some great Middle Grade books! Of course, there are others that are mediocre (for an adult) so finding the ones you’ll like can be tricky. If you try others, I hope you have good luck with them!
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Thanks. I highly doubt I’ll be exploring that section of literature though…
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I’ve actually asked myself A LOT if I should explore MG books to give myself a solid list of recommendations for life since that’s a HUGE gap in my own history with literature. I didn’t read enough, especially not in English, to know what’s the good stuff I would’ve liked and whatnot. 😮
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this is definitely a chunk of lit that I’m not familiar with either. It is where I would rely on certain awards and explore certain authors (Scott O’Dell, etc) that I knew I had enjoyed back in the day.
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I felt the same way- there was something indefinable missing, but I still enjoyed it. Glad you did too! And that you’re venturing out into MG! (I only started doing that in recent years too)
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I just don’t know if I’ll do any more venturing into this area to be honest. If I do, it’ll be because I already own the books and want an official “review” of them 🙂
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