Guest Post -- Review : Midnight for Charlie Bone

Title: Midnight for Charlie Bone
Author: Jenny Nimmo
Publishers: Orchard Books (Scholastic)
Genre: Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 401
Rating: 7/ 10

The photograph that Charlie now held showed a man holding a baby. The man sat on an upright chair. He had thinning, grayish hair and a long mournful face. His crumpled suit was black and his thick pebble glasses gave his pale gray eyes a lost marble like stare.
Instead of pushing the photograph back into the envelope, Charlie continued to gaze at it. In fact, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. He began to feel dizzy and his ears were filled with mysterious sounds, like the hiss and swish of voices on the radio when you can’t pinpoint the right frequency.
“Oh,” he said. “Um, what…?” His own voice seemed far away trapped behind a kind of fog.
“What’s wrong, Charlie?” asked his mother.
“Is something happening?” Grandma Bone crept forward. “Aunt Eustacia rang me. She had one of her premonitions, Are you a proper Yewbeam after all?”

This is an excerpt from when Charlie bone discovers that he has powers. Also he discovers that he is a proper Yewbeam.

This book is from a series of eight. Like “Charlie Bone and the Time Twister,” “Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy,” “Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors, Charlie Bone and the Hidden King,” and “Charlie Bone and the Beast and more!” This book continues where the last one left off, so it is better to read them in order. This book is Fantasy because there are many kind of animals that are not real and also people who have different types of powers and abilities. For example Charlie has the power to hear what people are saying in photographs.

Charlie has figured out that he has powers to look in a photograph and see what is happening in the photo. The problem is that Charlie’s friend Emma has foster parents and she needs to find her real family. One family member is left - her aunt. Her dad was working and some thing went wrong with his work and he died. Now Charlie and his friends have to save Emma. Will Charlie succeed in his mission?

My opinion was that it was a good book. But, I think the author should have put more humor in the book. The book was a little confusing because there are so many characters and it is hard to keep track of them. I would think it could be better because it is not that clear at what they are doing. The chapters weren‘t organized well and the action wasn‘t continuous.

I would rate this book 7/10 because three was for the creativity, two for the illustrations and two points for the writing. Jenny Nimmo could have earned three more points by improving how she hooked the reader, how she emphasized events, and how she organized the book

I would recommend this to anybody who is a creative writer and likes to read fantasy. I say that because she has a lot of creative stuff - like Charlie’s amazing powers. Read on to find out all the cool stuff that happens in the book!!!!!