Reviews from the Children's Section - Fridays with the Wizard

One of my favorite genres and one that is the easiest for me to push aside is middle grade fiction. This year to make sure I get a little more children's and young adult fiction I thought I would designate the first Monday of every month Middle Grade Monday (though sometimes it doesn't end up working quite right) .  While a lot of my picks this year are classics I am trying to branch out a little bit and read new or at least recent releases.  This month I snapped up the next book in one of my favorite series.

Goodreads:  Fridays with the Wizard (Castle Glower #4) by Jessica Day George

Blurb: Celie and her friends and family are back in the Castle, safe and sound. But there's still the problem of Wizard Arkwright. What do you do with an evil wizard?
Especially when he escapes from his cell, but doesn't leave the Castle!

Now it's up to Celie, with the help of her wizard brother Bran and her griffins, to track down Arkwright and get rid of him for good!

My Thoughts:  This is such a fun series and this book was such a treat.  I loved catching up with Celie, Lilah, Rolf, Pogue and everyone else.  I especially loved seeing a bit more of Bran and the Queen - two characters we had seen before but were always more in the background.  The story really pulled me in and was fast paced without being rushed.  I really love Jessica Day George's writing style and her ability to create characters that seem so real.

As a parent I really liked that the emotions ran high in this book and how they were dealt with.  At one point Celie and her sister are just at each others' throats and the Queen pulls them aside and talks with them about it in a way that does not condone acting however they want while still accepting how they're feeling.  There are times when several of the older male characters are in tears and it's not over-emphasized or made to seem embarrassing. 

I will say that there were only a few months between when I read this book and the 3rd book in the series and I think that really helped me connect with the book.  It had been over a year between the time I read book 2 and book 3 and I think I had just forgotten too much so it took me a bit to get into the story.  I would recommend reading the series relatively close together.

This series is a fun adventure story with a bit of magic that never gets too intense or overly complicated.  It would be a great read or read aloud for just about any age.  I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series and reading the whole series aloud with my 10 year old.