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Jump to navigationJump to searchSophia the Flame Sister (Spell Sisters) by Amber Castle and Mary Hall (view source)
Revision as of 10:20, 16 January 2012
, 10:20, 16 January 2012no edit summary
It's 'inspired by' rather than 'based on' the Arthurian legend. There's a lady of the lake but the sword in the stone becomes a pendant with magic properties which only the chosen one can remove from the stone. Arthur makes but a fleeting appearance: this is a book about girls and for girls, but that doesn't mean that it's ''girly''. Gwen is a feisty spirit who knows her own mind and she and Flora have plenty of adventures in the course of their quest.
The evil Morgana Le Fay is just one of nine sisters and she's imprisoned the other eight in various places and stolen their magical powers. That should give you a hint as to how many books you might be about to buy over the course of a few months. Each one reads well as a standalone, but there's the sneak preview of the next book in the series, the stickers which build into an Avalon landscape and a [[http://www.spellsisters.co.uk website] from which scenes to decorate can be downloaded. It's subtle. There's value. But don't kid yourself that you're going to be buying anything less than the whole series.
Is it worth it? There's good value here. The stories have more layers than the usual graded readers. The writing is good, the vocabulary is challenging and the story pulls you in and makes you want to know what's going to happen next. The chapters are short and liberally sprinkled with illustrations so the young reader is going to get a real sense of achievement in reading these books. We've seen [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/085707248X?tag=thebookbag-21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=085707248X&adid=1MJ0FKHGCSDE7V8R7EY9&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebookbag.co.uk%2Freviews%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DBooks_for_Review Lily the Forest Sister] and it's of the same quality.
