Magyk (Septimus Heap, book 1) by Angie Sage
3 stars
Reasons for reading: it's popular with kids at the library; I have to do a booktalk on it
Book description: Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow - a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take her into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?
My thoughts: I'm not much of a fantasy girl, but this one was pretty entertaining. One cool thing was that, despite being the title character, Septimus' identity isn't revealed until the end of the book. His identity is pretty obvious (at least it was to grown-up me), but I thought it added some interest. But there's lots of adventure, magic, and humour. I enjoyed the fun details, like Bert the cat who's been transformed into a duck (so she meows instead of quacks) and the Sheild Bugs - magically transformed insects who pop out of their jars armed with tiny swords and fight to the death. It's a pretty hefty book and there are a lot of characters in the book, which dawned on me when I read the "What happened to?" section at the end and couldn't remember who half of them were.
One irksome thing - putting any word that had anything to do with Magyk in bold italics.
I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series, but I'd definitely recommend it to kids.
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