by Shawn Thomas Odyssey
Egmont
2011
346 pages
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Magical, mysterious, and delighful, The Wizard of Dark Street is a captivating read. For those readers who enjoyed Harry Potter and other wizarding books, Oona Crate is an appealing new wizard--but one who doesn't want to use magic. Oona, you see, would give it all up to be a detective and use her brains, her powers of deduction (nod to Sherlock Holmes), and clues to solve mysteries. Her uncle, the current Wizard of Dark Street, finally prints an ad in The New York Times for a new apprentice, since it appears his neice will never be able to take over his role.
Dark Street is a magical world the reader will fall in love with. A world just inside New York City yet invisible to most non-magical folk. The gates to the street only open for one minute each night at the stroke of midnight. Most children are fast asleep in their beds at that hour, and most adults would miss that minute. Even if they thought they saw something out of the corner of their eye, upon a second glance perhaps the gate would already close, and they'd think their eyes had played tricks on them.
Dark Street has always existed, "In one form or another it had always been there, a bridge between the fantastic and the ordinary, between magic and reason, between the Land of the Fay and the city that never sleeps."
Oona makes it her business to discover who stole all the designer dresses from Madame Iree's dress shop. The hopelessly bungling police detective Inspector White is laughable, and he sure doesn't want a little girl upstaging him, even if she is the neice of the reigning Wizard.
When her own uncle goes missing, Oona uses her wits and the help of her magical pet raven Deacon, an enchanted know-it-all who holds encyclopedic information about the history of the enchanted world and all its inhabitants, to solve the mystery.
Mystery fans and fans of magic will love the fantastic world of Dark Street. Strange characters abound along with skullduggery. The beautiful cover art will draw readers in, and the author's website is fantastic! check it out here
Recommended grades 5-up. Good readers grade 4 may want to give it a try.
FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.
I just picked this up on your recommendation to see if we want it for our school!
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