Audience: This is a good fantasy for any age, but I think the target age is maybe fifth grade through ninth.
Plot: Sophie is the eldest of three daughters and is resigned to her future as a failure (in tales it is always the youngest who succeeds) and to her life in her parent's hat shop. But when the Witch of the Waste turns Sophie into a ninety-year-old woman for no apparent reason, Sophie sets out on a quest to break the spell and ends up in the moving castle of the disreputable wizard Howl, where she finds more than one spell in need of breaking.
What makes it great?
What I like about this book is that it is very different from any fantasy I've ever read. Sophie's world is relatively normal. She works in a hat shop, after all. But the weird stuff is considered just as normal as working in a hat shop. Sophie lives in a wizard's house, befriends Calcifer the fire demon, and wields magic of her own without even realizing it. I also love the idea of Howl's door. The moving castle has one door that leads to at least four different places depending on where the knob is turned, which is really clever. Mostly though, I just love the characters. Sophie is stubborn and funny, Howl is dashing and mysterious, and you just can't help but love Calcifer. The romance between Sophie and Howl is the cherry on top.
A word on the film:
This is one of the few times when I can recommend the movie just as highly as the book. The book is weird. The movie is weird in a completely different way. I like them both. The plots are slightly different, but I think Miyazaki did a great job of capturing the every-day magic of Sophie's world. Check it out!
No comments:
Post a Comment