Review: The Magykal Papers by Angie Sage
A lot of the fun of this book is that each piece is illustrated and designed to look as if it were the real thing: Septimus's homework has ink splotches and is set in a handwriting font, an official letter looks as if it were typed and you can see the places where the paper was folded, and a few pages from the "Egg-on-Toast Restaurant Guide" look like they have been well thumbed.
You'll find a bit of everything in The Magykal Papers: short biographies, recipes, tour brochures, maps, excerpts from Jenna's diary, Septimus's report cards, and Alther's "Guide to Being Dead: Ten Handy Rules for New Ghosts." Any fan of the series would love this book, but a child in fifth or sixth grade would have hours of pleasure, looking at the pictures and reading the entries.
Because some of the histories and biographies contain minor spoilers to the books, I suggest reading The Magykal Papers only after you've read at least the first three books in the Septimus Heap series.
Here are some scans of sample pages. I've picked them so they won't include spoilers to the novels, but they give you an idea of some of the variety of material (click to enlarge).
Septimus Heap has his own website, where you can find out more about Angie Sage and the books in the series.
The Magykal Papers at Amazon
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Published by HarperCollins, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780061704161
Challenges: 100+, Clear Off Your Shelves
YTD: 84Source: Bought (see review policy)Rating: B+
10 comments:
This sounds like so much fun! I need to motivate my daughter to read the first book, which she has on her shelves. Then perhaps she could motivate ME to read them!
This book looks so beautiful but also sounds like a lot of fun to read.
This looks so good. I will definitely check it out!
I don't think my older son has read anything in this series (but I could be wrong) ... I'll ask him. He would love the format of this book; something to look forward to after reading the other books.
I love the way that book is set up. It looks like great fun! I think some of the "adults" around here would enjoy it.
I've never read this series, but it seems so fun! And yay scrapbook-ish pictures :-)
I finished the first book in this series last month and intend to go through the rest soon. I thought they'd be nice keeper books for my kids...I had no idea this companion type book was out there too. I'll have to pick it up to complete the set (and keep my ocd from acting up....lord forbid there's a part of a series that I don't have on the shelves, LOL).
I have the first three books in this series but I didn't get to read any yet. I was hoping I could read it with my daughter but she shows no interest in fantasy fiction whatsoever so I think I'll be reading it by myself.
I love the Angie Sage books, and this definitely sounds like something I would enjoy
Hi Beth, I will take up your advice and read this only after I've read the first 3. Thanks for the review!
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