Jenny Nimmo The Castle of Mirrors Review

I chose this book because I have read the other three in the series and found them enjoyable because they involve adventures, fantasy and mysteries. Here are some main characters: Charlie Bone, the central figure, has a special endowment that lets him travel into photographs and paintings. Charlie goes to Bloor's Academy, a school which hosts some kids that have other magical endowments. Charlie is always ready for adventure and is also good at solving mysteries.

Billy Raven is an orphan who also goes to Bloor's Academy; Billy can communicate with animals. Billy used to be an enemy of Charlie, but he just recently teamed up with him, and they now work together.

Fidelio Gunn is Charlie's friend. He has a talent for music and is always willing to help Charlie. Fidelio is unendowed.



Charlie doesn't seem like a convincing character because the things he does seem impossible for anyone to do, such as going into pictures and paintings and using magic from his wand. But within the world of the book he seems real enough. Billy was adopted by two mean people, Florence and Usher de Gray. Usher can make force fields, and Billy gets trapped within their house. Charlie manages to break the force field and helps Billy escape.

Olivia (another character) auditions for a role in a play but fails to get the part, she then loses all confidence in herself. Later on in the story, Alice Angel visits Olivia and encourages her to believe in herself and teaches her how to create illusions using her secret endowments.

The main focus of this book was for Charlie to find his dad who has been missing for eight years. Charlie hears about a special castle where a man is heard playing the piano. Charlie's dad was skilled at playing the piano. Charlie tried his best to get to the castle and find his dad. Charlie manages to find the castle but discovers that the man playing the piano wasn't his dad but someone else. Charlie faces great disappointment, hopefully in the next Charlie Bone Book he will find his dad.

I liked Charlie the best in the book because he is a great character, honest and forgiving and is always ready for adventure.

I liked Joshua Tiplin the least because he stole Charlie's violin and also made Tranced (his friend) turn against him by using his magnetic endowment.

I would change the ending so that Christopher Crowell wouldn't die and Billy could have someone to adopt him. Billy found out he had an uncle; his uncle was in prison, it was not his fault, someone tried to kill him but the blow only made him unconscious and was then set up for armed robbery. After Charlie came back from the castle of mirrors, he had met up with his uncle Paton, Christopher and the man Charlie thought was his father. While they were walking away from the castle an ancestor of Charlie - Yorath Yewbeam, a shape shifter - turned into a deadly tree called a black yew and attacked them. Christopher then sacrificed his life to kill the black yew and save the others.



I would've also changed the ending so that the man Charlie found in the castle of mirrors was actually Charlie's dad, Lyell Bone. When Charlie was a baby, Lyell was driving and apparently he accidentally fell into a really deep swamp, there was mist that day so everyone assumed he couldn't see the road and he just fell in. His car was found but not his body. Charlie and his uncle think that the yewbeam aunts were responsible and that Lyell is trapped somewhere.



The part I liked best was when Alice showed Olivia what she could do. Olivia had lost all confidence in herself after losing the audition. Alice then told Olivia that she had talent and Alice showed Olivia how she could make illusions!



A blurb I'd write: Things are arduous for Charlie Bone this term at Bloor's Academy -- as usual! As he continues to search for his long-missing father, Ezekiel and Manfred are brewing up trouble, and his Yewbeam aunts have all sorts of strife in store for him. When Charlie finds out about a castle of mirrors, he instantly sets out to find it. With a little help from Billy, they might be able to find it. Who knows what it contains? He heard that the castle normally has mysterious piano music playing, and his father is said to have had a great talent for piano; might he be prisoner within its walls ?



In this book, Jenny Nimmo takes magic and adventure to the next level. Age-old mysteries, fascinating protagonists, and dastardly villains all make for a thrilling page-turner that keeps the reader guessing right till the end!