In celebration of Halloween, we bought this middle grade book by Julia E. Clements for my son’s class. Since it came early, I thought I would read and review it here as my Halloween blog post – and boy am I glad I did! From the very first page of the Prologue I was hooked!
This is a story about a 12-year-old girl (from England) named Izzy who visits her grandma in Italy for the summer. Her grandma shares stories about evil spirits and the Guardians who battled them. She also reveals that she is the last of the Guardians and tells of the most wicked demon, a Mazzapeghoul, who inhabits the abandoned Malasorte Castle. Izzy’s grandma insists the stories are true, but Izzy isn’t so sure. While there, Izzy makes friends with a group of local Italian kids and they invite her into their group and decide to spend the night in Malasorte Castle – which none of them believe is haunted. However, just in case, the kids bring the items listed in a spell Izzy finds in her grandma’s room to get rid of the Mazzapegoul. It’s a good thing they did because the Mazzapeghoul shows up! The Mazzapegoul is a disgusting and destructive demon and, while the children are understandably terrified, they work together to banish the Mazzapeghoul! Hooray! You will have to read the story to find out how!
This is a wonderfully written story which keeps the reader on the edge of his/her seat! Not only is the story gripping and appropriate for kids (not too scary or gory; no bad words), but kids will be able to relate with the nervousness of making new friends, the stress of having someone not like them, the wonderful feeling of bonding with new friends and the sadness of leaving friends behind. I love that this book promotes friendship and teamwork. I also appreciate the grandmother/granddaughter dynamic of the story, which illustrates how important family is. This story also touches upon parental discord and divorce and I’ll bet lots of kids will be able to relate to Izzy’s feelings about this as well.
If you can’t tell, I truly enjoyed this story! However, putting on my mom hat, there is one thing which I can see might bother some parents. In the story, Izzy and her friends do a few things kids do that parents would not approve of – like purposely giving bad directions to tourists as a prank, daring each other to steal fruit from a neighbor’s yard, sneaking into grandma’s room to find the spellbook, and lying about where they were spending the night! Oh no! I personally don’t think reading about these shenanigans would influence my son to do these types of things, but that’s just me. Figured it was my duty to point this out to my fellow parents who may be more sensitive to such matters.
You can find this book this book on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Malasorte-Castle-Julia-Clements-ebook/dp/B07GTPJ1KJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541032014&sr=8-1&keywords=malasorte+castle
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!