Sunday, April 8, 2012

Castle Girl: Tuesdays at the Castle

Tuesdays at the CastleJessica Day George wrote several books about collector dragons, but in her Cybil's finalist middle grade fantasy she aims a little younger.  Tuesdays at the Castle would fit in an elementary school library, and I greatly enjoyed the tale of Princess Celie and her best friend the castle as they battle treacherous advisors and an evil prince for control of the kingdom.

At the start of the book we learn that Tuesdays is the day Castle Glower changes itself around -- adding new rooms, altering others, making new corridors to accomodate or inconvenience the deserving.  However, once things start happening the castle stops restricting itself to Tuesdays and works with Celie to provide spy holes, equipment, and special slides to get her where she needs to go.

I like how supportive her family is -- they squabble some but the siblings are clearly friends. Even the older brother who went off to become a wizard remains trustworthy. And it's a good book for little dogs -- instead of being evil indicators they work as true fantasy dogs to show who deserves loyalty. 

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