A blog of my running thoughts while reading. *Warning: Spoilers*
This is an interesting guest, but again makes me feel like everything is being set up by Morgan and Merlin just for the sake of teaching the kids something. That is kind of annoying. The kids have shown that they deserve better than that. At least da Vinci is an interesting person for them to visit.
This was an interesting story. I enjoyed Basho’s commentary and poetry. The secret to happiness that they found was sweet. I liked the cloud dragon, although it felt oddly overdramatic for this story. I was disappointed that the dark wizard wasn’t in this book at all. I really hope that Osborne revisits that plot!
This is a strange quest. It’s rather nebulous for this series! I’m rather disappointed that I’m nearly half-way through and there’s no sign of the Dark Wizard or his apprentices. Still, the kids trying to blend in is interesting (especially since anyone believing they were Japanese is somewhat unbelievable). Hopefully this turns out to be an enjoyable book.
This was actually a really interesting story. I can’t remember another book where Jack and Annie had actual enemies working against them. I know that there hasn’t been one before where someone they didn’t know knew who they were like that. I hope that the Dark Wizard and his apprentices show up again! They give the stories some interesting conflict that they usually lack.
This was kind of weird. It kept a bit of the feel of the old story, except that the moral (which was firmly pointed out for us) didn’t quite work. The mayor and his council didn’t actually seem to receive any real punishment in this version. Being taken out of town and sent camping permanently doesn’t seem awful, especially in comparison to losing all of the town’s children. But the Zamboni driving mouse was pretty adorable.
I have this feeling that the unicorn is going to be a statue. The kids are pretty cute, though. Jack using the spell to find Annie was really sweet. I’ll be interested to see how this one plays out. The last two stories haven’t been enormously magical, but this one seems like it may be. I look forward to finding out!
The end of this was cute, but it seemed odd that Merlin gave them a fake quest. Unfair, in a way. The scientists were written well, although I don’t like when famous quotes are used like that. This wasn’t the strongest Magic Tree House quest, but it was far from the weakest!
The universe seems to be falling apart faster than is really possible and somehow the kids have found that it’s mostly a distraction. This book does have a great sense of connection with the rest of the series, especially the beginning, that not every Young Wizards book has had. The idea of a bright version of the Lone Power was foreshadowed back at the end of Nita and Kit’s ordeal in the very first book. I love that it’s coming back into play now!
Well, Jack and Annie are certainly managing to see a lot of the World’s Fair as they chase the strange messenger from “magician” to “magician”. They seem to generally grasp the import of where they are and who they’re looking for, which is nice (they aren’t always so aware). I’m enjoying this book so far!
Magicians of technology. Interesting. But are they really looking for people (the inventors or scientists involved) or is Merlin considering the technologies themselves the magicians? I wonder who or what the “evil sorcerer” is, too. This is an intriguing quest. I hope that it lives up to the promising beginning!