Magyk

by Angie Sage

Harper Collins 2005
Ages 9-up
576 pages

Silas Heap brings home a tiny baby girl found abandoned in the forest and his wife greets him with terrible news: his own newborn son, Septimus, has died. The girl, named Jenna, is raised as Heaps' adored daughter, but one day the mother learns something odd. The queen was murdered on the day her daughter was born, but the newborn was saved, hidden...in the woods? Could Jenna be the princess?

Enter Marcia Overstrand, the colorful ExtraOrdinary Wizard. The family is in danger, she says, and orders Jenna into her protective Tower, and the Heaps' into the woods for safety for the Supreme Custodian has ordered them all killed.

But everyone's whereabouts is soon learned and the quest to survive is filled with creative characters and events, including the thawing of Boy 412, and a pet rock that cuddles. Marcia may be overly preoccupied with purple high heels but she throughs a mean killer fog when need be.

Will the princess survive? Is Septimus really dead? For these answers and inventive magic and clever characterizations, read this book. Certainly one of the top fantasy books of our time..

Review by J.